FRENCH 
ARMV 

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THE  FRENCH  ARMY  FROM  WITHIN 


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,THE    FRENCH    ARMY 
FROM  WITHIN 


BY 
"EX-TROOPER" 


NEW  YORK 
GEORGE   H.  DORAN   COMPANY 


N    ,> 


COPYEIGHT,  1914 

By  GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I  PAGE 

The  Constitution  of  the  French  Army       ...       7 

CHAPTER  II 
The  French  Soldier  at  Home 18 

CHAPTER  III 
The  Higher  Ranks 2.y 

CHAPTER  IV 
Infantry 44 

CHAPTER  V 
Off  Duty Si 

CHAPTER  VI 
Cavalry 60 

CHAPTER  VII 
Artillery 74 

CHAPTER   VIII 

In  Camp  and  on  the  March ''^.' 

5 


6  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  IX  PACK 

Manceuvres 104 

CHAPTER  X 
With  the  Cavalry  Scouts 119 

CHAPTER  XI 
Internal  Economy i33 

CHAPTER  Xll 
Some  Incidentals i44 

CHAPTER  XIII 
The  Great  Garrison  Towns  of  France    ....    156 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Some   Effects.     Active   Service 171 


CHAPTER   I 

THE    CONSTITUTION    OF    THE  FRENCH 
ARMY 

BEFORE  proceeding  to  the  consideration  of 
life  as  lived  in  the  French  Army,  it  would  be 
well  to  have  a  clear  understanding  of  the  consti- 
tution of  the  Army  of  France,  the  parts  of  which 
it  is  composed,  and  the  conditions  under  which  it 
is  organised  and  controlled.  The  British  Army 
is  a  growth  of  years,  and  even  of  centuries,  but 
with  the  changes  of  government  that  France  has 
undergone  since  1815  the  constitution  of  the  Army 
has  undergone  radical  changes,  and  the  French 
Army  of  to-day  dates  back  only  to  1871 — that  is, 
as  far  as  form  and  composition  are  in  question. 

One  of  the  principles  under  which  the  present 
Republic  of  France  is  constituted  is  that  ''every 
citizen  is  a  soldier."  This  principle  has  been  more 
and  more  enforced  with  the  growth  and  consolida- 
tion of  the  Republic  since  1870,  and  successive 
laws  passed  with  reference  to  the  Army  have  been 

7 


8  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

framed  with  ever-increasing  recognition  of  the 
need  for  mihtary  efficiency.  By  the  first  law  with 
regard  to  the  constitution  of  the  Army,  that  of 
July  27th,  1872,  every  young  man,  at  the  age  of 
twenty,  so  long  as  he  was  physically  fit,  owed  to 
his  country  five  years  of  active  service,  five  years 
in  the  Territorial  Army  of  France,  and  six  years 
in  what  was  known  as  the  Territorial  reserve.  On 
this  law  the  constitution  and  organisation  of  the 
Army  were  first  based. 

The  law  of  July  15th,  1889,  reduced  the  period 
of  service  to  three  years  in  the  active  Army,  but 
the  principle  remained  the  same.  A  further  modi- 
fication in  the  length  of  service  was  brought  about 
by  the  law  of  1905,  which  reduced  the  period  of 
service  with  the  active  Army  to  two  years,  and 
abolished  certain  classes  of  citizens  who  were  ex- 
cused from  military  service  for  various  reasons. 
Up  to  the  passing  of  this  law,  bread-winners  of  a 
family  had  been  exempt,  but  by  it  they  were 
called  on  to  serve,  while  the  state  pensioned  their 
dependents  during  their  period  of  service;  the 
"voluntariat,"  consisting  of  men  who  paid  a  certain 
amount  to  the  state  in  order  to  serve  for  a  period 
of  one  year  only,  was  abolished — "every  citizen  a 
soldier"  was  made  more  of  a  reality  than  ever,  for 
the  nation  realised  that  it  must  keep  pace  with  the 


CONSTITUTION  OF  FRENCH  ARMY       9 

neighbour  on  the  east,  who  was  steadily  increasing 
its  military  resources. 

From  the  age  of  twenty  to  that  of  forty-five, 
every  Frenchman  physically  capable  of  military 
service  is  a  soldier.  Each  commune  complies  yearly 
a  list  of  its  young  men  who  have  attained  the 
age  of  twenty  during  the  preceding  twelve  months. 
All  these  young  men  are  examined  by  the  conseil 
de  revision  cantonale,  a  revising  body  of  military 
and  civilian  officials,  by  whom  the  men  not  physic- 
ally fit  are  at  once  rejected,  and  men  who  may  pos- 
sibly attain  to  the  standard  of  fitness  required  are 
put  back  for  examination  after  a  sufficient  interval 
has  elapsed  to  admit  of  their  development  in  height, 
weight,  or  other  requirement  in  which  they  are 
deficient.  Five  feet  and  half  an  inch  is  the  mini- 
mum standard  of  height,  though  men  of  exceptional 
physical  quality  are  passed  into  the  infantry  below 
this  height. 

The  loi  dcs  cadres  of  1907  supplemented  the 
law  of  1905  without  materially  changing  it.  At 
the  present  time  about  200,000  men  are  enrolled 
every  year,  this  number  including  the  men  who 
have  been  put  back  from  previous  examination 
by  the  revising  council.  The  active  Army  of  France 
thus  consists  of  about  535,000  men,  together  with 
an   approximate  total  of   55,000  men  serving   in 


10  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

Algeria  and  20,000  men  serving  in  Tunis.  The 
gendarmerie  and  Republican  guard  add  on  another 
25,000,  and  the  colonial  troops  serving  in  the 
French  colonies  amount  to  a  total  of  about  60,000. 
This  last  number  is  steadily  increasing  by  means 
of  the  enrolment  of  natives  of  the  French  colonies 
in  Africa. 

These  numbers  concern  the  Army  on  a  peace 
footing.  In  case  of  a  national  emergency  the  total 
war  strength  of  the  French  Army  is  calculated  at 
4,800,000.  Of  these  1,350,000  comprise  the  first 
line  troops  made  up  of  the  active  Army  and  younger 
classes  of  the  reserve,  who  would  constitute  the 
first  field  armies  to  engage  the  enemy  on  an  out- 
break of  war.  The  remainder  of  the  total  of 
nearly  5  millions  would  be  called  up  as  required  for 
garrison  purposes  and  to  strengthen  the  ranks  of 
the  field  army. 

The  citizen  is  still  expected  to  give  twenty-five 
years  of  service  to  his  country;  of  these,  two — or 
rather  three,  under  the  law  passed  by  the  action  of 
the  war  ministry  of  M.  Viviani  just  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  present  continental  war — years 
are  expected  to  be  spent  in  the  active  Army,  and 
another  eleven  in  the  reserve  of  the  active  Army. 
During  this  second  period  of  eleven  years  men  are 
recalled  to  the  colours — that  is,  to  service  with  the 


CONSTITUTION  OF  FRENCH  ARMY      ii 

active  Army — for  periods  of  a  month  at  a  time. 
At  the  conclusion  of  this  first  thirteen  years  of 
service,  men  pass  automatically  to  the  Territorial 
Army,  which  is  supposed  to  serve  for  the  purposes 
of  home  defence  only.  Service  in  the  Territorial 
Army  lasts  six  years,  after  which  the  soldier  passes 
to  six  years  in  the  reserve  of  the  Territorial  Army. 
After  this  the  French  citizen  is  exempt  from  any 
further  military  obligation. 

Registered  at  the  age  of  twenty,  the  French 
citizen  is  called  to  the  colours  on  the  first  of  October 
following  his  registration,  and  passes  from  the 
active  Army  two  years  later  on  September  30th. 
In  old  days,  when  the  period  of  service  in  the 
active  Army  was  for  five  years,  the  French  Army 
was  an  unpopular  institution,  but  the  shortening 
of  service  together  with  the  knowledge,  possessed 
by  the  nation  as  a  whole,  that  the  need  for  every 
citizen  soldier  would  eventually  rise  through  the 
action  of  Germany,  have  combined  to  render  the 
Army  not  only  an  important  item  in  national  life, 
but  a  popular  one.  There  used  to  be  grousers  and 
bad  characters  by  the  score,  but  now  they  are 
rarely  found. 

In  time  of  peace  the  active  Army  of  France  is 
so  organised  as  to  form  the  skeleton  on  which  to 
build  the  war  forces  of  the  Republic.     The  system 


12  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

is  one  of  twenty  permanent  Army  Corps  based  as 
follows:  the  first  at  Lille,  the  second  at  Amiens, 
the  third  at  Rouen,  the  fourth  at  Le  Mans,  the 
fifth  at  Orleans,  the  sixth  at  Chalons-sur-Marne, 
the  seventh  at  Besangon,  the  eighth  at  Bourges,  the 
ninth  at  Tours,  the  tenth  at  Rennes,  the  eleventh 
at  Nantes,  the  twelfth  at  Limoges,  the  thirteenth 
at  Clermont-Ferrand,  the  fourteenth  at  Lyons,  the 
fifteenth  at  Marseilles,  the  sixteenth  at  Montpellier, 
the  seventeenth  at  Toulouse,  the  eighteenth  at 
Bordeaux,  the  nineteenth  at  Algiers,  and  the 
twentieth  at  Nancy. 

The  strength  of  an  Army  Corps  is  made  up  of 
two  divisions  of  infantry,  a  brigade  of  cavalry,  a 
brigade  of  horse  and  field  artillery,  and  one  "squad- 
ron of  train,"  the  last  named  including  the  non- 
combatants  of  the  Army  Corps.  Exceptions  are 
the  Sixth  Army  Corps  with  head-quarters  at 
Chalons,  the  seventh  at  Besangon,  and  the  nine- 
teenth at  Algiers;  of  these  the  first  mentioned  two 
contain  three  divisions  of  infantry  instead  of  two, 
while  the  Algerian  Corps  has  four  divisions,  one 
of  which  is  detached  for  duty  in  Tunis. 

In  addition  to  the  twenty  stations  of  the  Army 
Corps,  eight  independent  cavalry  divisions  have 
head-quarters  respectively  at  Paris,  Luneville, 
Meaux,  Sedan,  Melun,  Lyons,  Rheims,  and  Dole. 


CONSTITUTION  OF  FRENCH  ARMY     13 

There  is  also  the  military  government  of  Paris, 
which,  acting  independently  of  the  rest,  contains 
detachments  from  four  Army  Corps  and  two  cav- 
alry divisions.  A  cavalry  division  is  made  up  of 
two  brigades,  each  consisting  of  two  regiments 
which  in  turn  contain  four  squadrons  and  a  reserve 
squadron  of  peace. 

The  infantry  of  the  French  Army  consists  of 
163  regiments  of  infantry  of  the  line,  31  battalions 
of  Chasseurs  a  Pied,  mainly  stationed  in  mountain 
districts,  4  regiments  of  Zouaves,  4  regiments  of 
Turcos  or  native  Algerian  tirailleurs,  2  regiments 
of  the  Foreign  Legion,  5  disciplinary  battalions 
known  as  African  Light  Infantry. 

The  cavalry  organisation  is  12  regiments  of 
Cuirassiers,  32  regiments  of  Dragoons,  21  regi- 
ments of  Chasseurs — corresponding  to  the  British 
Lancers — 14  regiments  of  Hussars,  6  regiments  of 
Chasseurs  d'Afrique,  and  4  regiments  of  native 
Algerian  Cavalry  known  as  Spahis. 

The  French  Army  is  rather  weak  in  artillery,  its 
total  strength  consisting  of  445  field  batteries  or- 
ganised into  40  regiments  of  field  artillery;  52  bat- 
teries of  horse  artillery,  the  greater  part  of  which, 
however,  have  been  transformed  or  are  in  process 
of  transformation  to  field  batteries;  14  mountain 
batteries;    18  battalions  of   garrison  artillery,   to- 


14  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

gether  with  artificers  to  a  total  of  13  companies. 
Six  regiments  of  engineers  are  divided  into  2.2 
battalions,  and  there  is  also  a  department  of  engi- 
neers known  as  the  railway  regiment.  The  non- 
combatant  branches  of  the  Army  are  formed  into 
20  squadrons  of  train,  which  contain  the  equiva- 
lents to  the  British  Army  Service  Corps,  Army 
Ordnance  Corps,  and  the  personnel  of  units  con- 
nected with  the  upkeep  and  maintenance  of  the 
Army  in  the  field.  In  addition,  there  is  an  Army 
Corps  of  colonial  infantry,  service  in  which  is  a 
voluntary  matter.  Its  strength  is  about  30,000 
troops  in  France  and  over  60,000  distributed 
throughout  the  various  colonies. 

The  officers  of  the  French  Army  receive  their 
training  at  military  schools  established  in  various 
parts  of  the  Republic,  or  else  are  recruited  from 
among  non-commissioned  officers.  Not  less  than 
one-third  of  the  total  number  of  French  officers 
rise  to  commissions  by  the  latter  method — Napol- 
eon's remark  about  the  marshal's  baton  in  the 
private  soldier's  knapsack  still  holds  good  in  the 
French  Army.  The  principal  training  schools  are 
those  of  St.  Cyr  for  infantry  and  cavalry  officers, 
the  ficole  Polytechnique  for  artillery  and  engineer 
officers,  and  the  musketry  school  at  Chalons.  The 
schools  of  St.   Maixent,   Saumur,  Versailles,  and 


CONSTITUTION  OF  FRENCH  ARMY     15 

the  gymnastic  school  at  Joinville-le-Pont  are  in- 
tended for  the  training  of  non-commissioned  officers 
selected  for  commissions. 

The  rate  of  pay  for  men  in  the  first  period  of 
service  is  very  low,  ranging  from  the  equivalent 
of  a  halfpenny  a  day  upwards;  but  the  law  under 
which  the  Army  is  constituted  provides  for  the 
re-enlistment  of  such  men  as  wish  to  make  a  career 
of  the  Army,  and  on  re-enlistment  the  rate  of  pay 
is  materially  increased,  while  a  bounty  is  given  on 
re-engagement,  and  at  the  conclusion  of  a  certain 
amount  of  service  re-engaged  men  are  granted  pen- 
sions. It  is  only  reasonable  that,  with  the  adoption 
of  the  principle  of  universal  service,  the  rate  of  pay 
should  be  low;  voluntary  re-enlistment,  how- 
ever, is  a  different  matter,  so  the  Republic  rewards 
the  men  who  re-engage  at  the  conclusion  of  their 
first  term.  From  among  them  are  selected  prac- 
tically all  the  non-commissioned  officers,  while,  con- 
sidering that  all  necessaries  of  life  are  provided  for 
them  in  addition  to  their  pay,  even  the  rank  and 
file  are  not  badly  off. 

The  armament  of  the  French  infantry  is  the 
Lebel  rifle  with  bayonet,  this  pattern  of  rifle  having 
been  adopted  in  1886.  It  is  understood  that  an 
automatic  rifle  is  under  consideration,  but  a  serious 
drawback  to  the  use  of  such  a  weapon  is  the  fact 


16  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

that,  with  a  rate  of  fire  three  or  four  times  as  great 
as  that  of  the  ordinary  magazine  rifle  with  bolt 
action,  the  automatic  rifle  would  require  more  am- 
munition than  its  user  could  carry.  The  weapon 
of  the  Field  Artillery  is  a  shielded  quick-firing 
gun  of  Creusot  pattern,  with  a  bore  of  75  milli- 
metres. On  this  gun  the  field-guns  of  all  nations 
have  been  modelled,  but,  although  it  was  the  first 
of  its  kind  to  be  put  into  use,  it  still  gives  the  artil- 
lery of  the  French  Army  a  decided  advantage  over 
that  of  other  Continental  nations,  when  reckoned 
gun  for  gun.  The  French  cavalry  is  armed  with 
a  straight  sword,  in  place  of  the  old-fashioned 
curved  blade  which  the  French  discarded  some  time 
ago,  but  which  remained  in  use  in  the  British  Army 
up  to  the  end  of  1907.  A  carbine  and  bamboo 
lance  are  also  carried. 

In  all  matters  of  military  equipment  and  arma- 
ment the  French  Republic  has  led  the  world  since 
its  reconstitution  after  1870.  The  Lebel  rifle  and 
its  adoption  inaugurated  a  new  era  in  the  arma- 
ment of  infantry;  the  75-millimetre  gun,  as  already 
noted,  was  the  first  of  its  kind  to  come  into  use. 
The  Lebel  carbine  which  the  cavalry  carry  is  still 
unsurpassed  as  a  cavalry  weapon.  Further,  France 
led  the  world  in  the  development  of  air  craft;  the 
lighter-than-air  machine,   certainly,   has  developed 


CONSTITUTION  OF  FRENCH  ARMY     17 

into  a  German  specialty,  but  the  heavier-than-air 
machine,  or  aeroplane,  owes  its  development  to 
French  enterprise,  and  very  largely  to  French  mili- 
tary enterprise.  In  all  branches  of  the  service,  and 
in  all  matters  affecting  the  service,  the  French  Army 
is  the  home  of  experiment,  and  to  this  fact  is  due 
the  greater  part  of  French  military  efficiency  to-day. 
The  bravery  of  French  troops  is  unquestioned,  and, 
in  addition  to  this,  the  French  Army  has  nothing  to 
learn  from  the  armies  of  other  nations  as  regards 
materiel  and  equipment. 


CHAPTER   II 
THE  FRENCH    SOLDIER   AT   HOME 

BRITISH  soldiers,  serving  under  a  voluntary- 
system,  have  little  to  say  for  the  conscript 
system,  but  a  glance  round  Paris  in  time  of  peace 
might  persuade  them  that  there  are  various  com- 
pensations and  advantages  in  a  conscript  army 
which  they,  serving  voluntarily,  do  not  enjoy.  It 
is  a  surprise  to  one  who  has  served  in  the  British 
Army  to  see  the  French  Republican  Guards  sta- 
tioned on  the  grand  staircase  of  the  Opera,  and 
also  at  all  entrances  and  exits  of  this  famous 
building.  In  practically  every  theatrical  establish- 
ment in  Paris  the  Guards  may  be  seen  on  this  class 
of  duty,  for  which  they  get  specially  paid.  There 
are  military  attendants  at  the  Folies  Bergeres,  at 
the  Nouveau  Cirque,  at  the  Moulin  Rouge,  and 
even  at  such  an  irresponsible  home  of  laughter  as 
the  Bal  Tabarin.  As  the  darkey  said  of  Daniel  in 
the  lions'  den,  these  men  get  a  free  show. 

But  it  is  not  only  when  on  duty  that  the  French 
soldier  is  to  be  seen  in  such  places  of  amusement 

i8 


THE  FRENCH  SOLDIER  AT  HOME     19 

as  these,  for  the  non-commissioned  officer  is  to  be 
found  in  company  with  his  wife  or  fiancee  in  every 
class  of  seat.  It  is  no  uncommon  thing  to  find 
among  the  most  attentive  Hsteners  at  the  Opera 
a  number  of  piou-pioux,  in  full  uniform,  among 
the  fashionable  people  in  the  stalls.  The  Repub- 
lican rule,  which  makes  of  every  man  a  citizen  and 
an  equal  of  all  the  rest,  leads  to  what,  in  such  a 
country  as  England,  would  be  considered  curious 
anomalies.  Beside  the  newspaper  critic  in  full 
evening-dress  may  be  seen  the  private  soldier,  in 
uniform,  taking  notes  with  probably  greater  intelli- 
gence than  the  newspaper  man ;  for  the  soldier  may 
be  anything  in  civilian  life:  the  son  of  the  rich 
banker  occupies  the  next  bed  in  the  barrack-room  to 
the  son  of  the  Breton  peasant,  and  the  Cabinet  Min- 
ister's lad,  when  in  uniform,  is  on  a  level  with  the 
gamin  of  Paris. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  average  French 
soldier,  when  off  parade,  looks  rather  slovenly. 
The  baggy  trousers  go  a  long  way  toward  the  crea- 
tion of  this  impression.  Then,  again,  the  way  in 
which  the  French  soldier  is  trained  to  march  is  far 
different  from  British  principles.  The  "pas-de- 
flexion" does  not  look  so  smart  as  the  stately  march 
of  the  British  Guards,  but  it  is  more  effective. 
This    bent-knee,    slouching    method    carries    men 


20  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

along  with  a  swing;  the  step  is  shorter  than  that 
of  British  troops,  but  the  rate  is  more  to  the  minute 
than  that  of  the  British  Army,  and  the  men  swing 
along,  to  all  appearances  tireless,  at  such  a  pace 
that  they  cover  about  thirty  miles  a  day  on  manoeu- 
vres. This,  too,  with  a  pack  at  which  a  British 
infantryman  would  look  aghast,  for  the  French 
pack  is  proverbial  for  its  size  and  weight.  It  con- 
fers a  great  advantage,  however,  with  regard  to 
marching,  in  that  it  lessens  the  amount  of  transport 
which  must  follow  on  the  track  of  infantry,  and 
is  necessary  to  the  well-being  of  the  men. 

A  British  infantry  regiment  on  the  march,  and 
marching  at  ease,  still  looks  imposing;  a  French 
infantry  battalion,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  reverse 
of  spectacular  when  marching  at  ease.  The  band 
comes  first,  with  its  instruments  carried  anyhow  so 
long  as  they  are  comfortable;  the  rank  and  file, 
following,  carry  their  rifles  as  the  band  carries  its 
instruments,  in  any  fantastic  position  that  makes 
for  ease;  step  is  not  maintained;  the  set  "fours" 
which  British  troops  maintain  at  ease  as  well  as  at 
attention  are  not  to  be  seen,  for  a  man  drops  back 
to  the  rank  in  his  rear  to  talk  to  a  comrade,  or 
goes  forward  to  the  rank  in  front  to  light  his 
cigarette.  They  smoke  and  sing  and  joke;  they  eat 
bread  and  drink  wine  by  way  of  refreshment,  since 


THE  FRENCH  SOLDIER  AT  HOME     21 

the  evening  meal  is  yet  a  long  way  off;  alongside 
the  troops  as  they  march  may  be  seen  pedlars  and 
hawkers  offering  their  wares,  and  it  is  all  quite 
the  usual  thing,  quite  legitimate.  The  fetish  of 
smartness  is  non-existent  here;  comfort  and  use  are 
the  main  points. 

But,  at  the  given  occasion,  comes  the  word  from 
the  colonel;  correct  formations  appear  out  of  the 
threes  and  fives  of  men  as  if  by  magic.  The  band 
is  a  corporate  body,  marching  to  attention,  and 
playing  the  regiment  on  with  every  bit  as  fine  a 
military  appearance  as  any  British  band.  The  men 
resume  step,  and,  with  their  peculiar  swinging 
march,  follow  on,  a  regiment  at  attention,  and  as 
fine  a  regiment,  in  appearance  as  well  as  in  fact, 
as  one  would  wish  to  see.  Work  is  work,  and  play 
is  play,  and  the  French  soldier  does  both  thoroughly. 

This  attitude  of  the  French  soldier  toward  his 
work,  and  the  fact  that  he  is  permitted  to  main- 
tain that  attitude,  are  due  to  so  large  a  proportion 
of  the  officers  having  themselves  served  in  the 
ranks.  There  is  a  sufficient  leavening  of  "ranker" 
officers  to  enable  all  commissioned  men  to  under- 
stand, when  on  a  route  march,  what  it  feels  like 
to  the  rank  and  file.  Unlike  the  British  Army, 
that  of  France  is  a  Republican  business.  The  very 
circumstance  that  discipline  is  more  severe  arises 


22  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

from  the  fact  that  all  men  are  equal,  and  both 
soldier  and  officer  know  it.  And,  if  ever  the  French 
soldier  becomes  conscious  that  he  is  really  suffering 
from  the  severity  of  discipline,  he  knows  that  he  is 
suffering  in  good  company:  under  conscription 
there  is  no  escape. 

The  training  of  the  French  piou-piou  in  marching 
is  a  scientific  business.  At  first  he  is  required  to 
execute  i6o  steps  to  the  minute — ^very  short  steps 
taken  very  quickly.  In  this  way  the  recruit  is  made 
to  cover  3000  yards  at  first,  and  then  the  distance 
is  increased  to  12,000  yards,  the  increases  being 
made  a  thousand  yards  at  a  time.  As  the  distance 
increases,  the  length  of  the  step  is  increased,  and 
the  number  of  steps  to  the  minute  decreased.  The 
full  course  of  training  is  reckoned  at  three  prac- 
tices a  week  for  three  months,  and  the  infantry 
recruit,  before  being  dismissed  from  training,  is  re- 
quired to  cover  twelve  miles  at  the  rate  of  seven 
miles  an  hour.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this  scien- 
tific training  in  marching,  and  the  teaching  of  the 
half-shuffling  trot,  characteristic  of  French  infan- 
try, add  enormously  to  the  marching  value  of  the 
men.  One  battalion  of  Chasseurs-a-Pied  set  up  a 
record  in  marching  while  on  manoeuvres  by  cover- 
ing no  less  than  68  kilometres  (equivalent  to  nearly 
40  English  miles)   in  the  course  of  a  day.     This 


THE  FRENCH  SOLDIER  AT  HOME     23 

constitutes  a  definite  record  in  marching,  for  any 
considerable  body  of  men. 

In  the  matter  of  smartness,  it  is  hardly  fair  to 
compare  a  British  infantry  battalion  with  a  French 
one,  for  the  point  arises  yet  once  more  with  regard 
to  the  difference  between  a  voluntary  and  a  con- 
script system.  The  English  battalion  is  made  up 
of  picked  men,  while  in  the  French  service  all 
citizens  are  included ;  the  fact  of  choice  in  the  case 
of  the  British  battalion  makes  for  uniformity. 
The  recruits  of  the  French  battalion  include  every 
man  who  has  been  passed  by  the  revising  board, 
and  there  is  not  the  same  chance  of  maintaining 
that  uniformity  which  alone  is  responsible  for 
smartness.  And  smartness  itself  is  but  a  survival 
from  the  days  when  a  soldier  was  trained  to  no 
more  than  unquestioning  obedience,  the  old  days 
before  warfare  became  so  scientific  as  it  is  at  pres- 
ent, when  initiative  was  not  required  of  the  rank 
and  file.  The  only  purpose  served  by  smartness  at 
the  present  day  is  that  of  recruiting,  and,  obviously, 
a  conscript  army  has  no  need  of  this.  Hence  use 
rather  than  appearance  comes  first. 

An  island  people  may  well  wonder  that  a  con- 
script army  could  be  so  popular  as  is  the  French, 
but  then  an  island  people  could  never  realise,  al- 
though  they  might  vaguely  understand,   what   it 


24  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

must  be  like  to  know  that  some  day  the  army  of 
a  hostile  nation  may  march  across  the  frontier. 
The  absence  of  sea  bulwarks  makes  a  difference  in 
the  temper  of  a  people;  an  ever-present  threat 
colours  and  modifies  their  life,  and,  no  matter  how 
set  for  peace  the  conditions  may  appear,  the  threat 
is  present  just  the  same.  Since  1872  France  as  a 
whole  has  known  that  the  day  of  reckoning  with 
Germany  would  come,  and  the  knowledge  has 
grown  more  complete  and  more  insistent  with  the 
passing  of  each  year  and  the  increase  in  German 
military  preparations,  which  could  be  destined  to 
fulfil  but  one  end.  France  realised  its  duty  to 
combat  the  fulfilment  of  that  end,  and  the  nation 
as  a  whole  set  itself  to  prepare  against  "The 
Day." 

By  reason  of  this  the  French  Army  is  popular; 
the  discipline  is  severe,  far  too  much  so  for  any 
English  soldier  to  endure  as  a  Frenchman  endures 
it;  punishments  are  frequent,  it  is  true,  but  they 
are  undergone  in  the  right  spirit  by  the  great  ma- 
jority, who  know  that  the  Army  must  be  trained 
and  kept  in  ultimate  efficiency.  The  conscript 
knows  that  his  training  is  a  part  of  the  price  that 
the  nation  must  pay  for  having  a  land  frontier 
and  a  grasping  neighbour,  and  he  pays  his  part 
of  the  price  cheerfully  and  well.     It  may  be  said 


THE  FRENCH  SOLDIER  AT  HOME     25 

that  no  conscript  army  in  Europe  is  so  popular  as 
that  of  France;  in  none  is  there  a  better  spirit 
than  that  displayed  by  Frenchmen.  The  mercurial 
temperament  of  the  nation  is  yet  another  cause 
for  severe  disciplinary  measures,  for  in  order  to 
shape  a  Frenchman  to  military  requirements  his 
extreme  elasticity  must  be  controlled,  and  this 
would  be  impossible  under  such  conditions  as  are 
sufficient  for  the  maintenance  of,  say,  the  British 
Army. 

Moreover,  Republican  rule  and  French  military 
methods  have  forged  bonds  between  officers  and 
men  which  never  have  existed  and  never  will  exist 
in  the  army  of  their  great  opponent,  for  instance. 
I  have  devoted  a  considerable  section  of  a  chapter 
to  punishment,  and  possibly  at  first  sight  this  list 
may  appear  severe.  It  is,  however,  only  necessary 
to  recall  the  fact  that  while  Germany  takes  only 
a  percentage  of  its  men  for  military  training,  and 
France  takes  the  whole  for  the  same  purpose,  Ger- 
man methods  are  twice  as  severe.  Yet  again,  it  is 
not  the  quality  of  the  punishment  inflicted,  but  the 
spirit  in  which  it  is  inflicted  that  counts  most.  The 
French  soldier  admires,  respects,  and  will  gladly 
obey  the  colonel  or  captain  who  writes  him  down 
so  many  days  salle  de  police  when  he  deserves  it. 
But  the  German  soldier  is  hardly  likely  to  respect 


26  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

the  officer  who  not  only  inflicts  punishments  accord- 
ing to  scale,  but  will  lash  him  across  the  face  with 
a  whip  until  the  blood  flows.  Between  French  of- 
ficers and  their  men  is  the  spirit  of  comradeship, 
and  in  this  is  evidence  of  the  value  of  the  French 
method  of  training.  Between  the  German  officer 
and  the  man  whom  he  commands  are  hate  and 
despite  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  and  this  also 
attests  the  value  of  a  system. 


CHAPTER   III 
THE   HIGHER    RANKS 

SO  far  as  the  rank  and  file  of  the  French  Army- 
are  concerned,  no  officer  above  the  rank  of 
colonel  is  of  consequence,  for  the  man  in  the  ranks 
is  not  likely  to  come  in  contact  with  a  general 
officer  once  in  a  twelvemonth.  The  colonel  is  the 
head  of  the  regiment,  whether  of  artillery,  cavalry, 
or  infantry,  and  his  authority  extends  in  every 
direction  over  the  men  he  commands.  With  the 
help  of  the  Conseil  d' Administration  he  directs 
the  administration  of  his  regiment,  and  he  is  re- 
sponsible for  discipline  and  instruction,  all  forms  of 
military  education,  sanitation,  and  police  control, 
while,  needless  to  say,  he  is  held  responsible  for 
the  efficiency  of  the  regiment  and  the  appearance 
of  its  men.  He  has  absolute  power  as  regards 
the  appointment  of  all  non-commissioned  officers 
and  corporals,  who,  in  the  French  Army,  do  not 
rank  as  non-commissioned  officers. 

Corresponding  very  nearly  with  the  "second-in- 
command"  common  to  British  units,  the  lieutenant- 

27 


28  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

colonel  of  a  French  regiment  acts  on  behalf  of  the 
colonel,  and  is  the  intermediary  of  the  latter  in 
every  branch  of  the  service.  In  the  absence  of 
the  colonel  the  lieutenant-colonel  is  empowered  to 
issue  orders  in  his  name,  and  he  is  also  especially 
charged  with  the  discipline  and  conduct  of  the  of- 
ficers of  the  regiment.  He  keeps  the  report  books 
concerning  the  officers,  and  is  responsible  for  the 
entering  up  of  reports  as  regards  their  military  and 
private  conduct  and  their  efficiency.  The  colonel, 
however,  countersigns  the  reports,  adding  whatever 
notes  he  may  think  desirable. 

The  French  equivalent  of  the  major  of  English 
cavalry  is  the  Chef  d'Escadron,  of  whom  there  are 
two  to  each  regiment,  each  in  command  of  two 
service  squadrons.  One  is  specially  appointed  to 
presidency  over  the  Commission  des  Ordinaires  or 
arrangements  for  the  food  supply  of  the  regiment, 
while  the  other  presides  over  the  Commission 
d'Abattage,  which,  in  addition  to  the  actual  killing 
of  horses,  when  such  a  step  is  necessary,  is  con- 
cerned with  arrangements  for  forage  and  all  mat- 
ters connected  with  equine  supplies.  Each  of  the 
Chefs  d'Escadron  is  responsible  for  the  culinary 
arrangements  of  his  two  squadrons,  and  the  man- 
agement of  canteens  is  also  under  his  supervision. 
The  two  chefs  are  in  charge  of  the  barrack  police 


THE  HIGHER  RANKS  29 

and  transmit  their  orders  with  regard  to  this  duty 
through  a  captain  and  an  adjutant. 

The  officer  known  in  the  British  service  as  quar- 
termaster is  termed  major  in  the  French  Army, 
but  the  French  major  has  more  definite  authority 
than  the  British  quartermaster.  Under  his  charge 
are  placed  the  regulation  of  pay  and  accounts,  the 
making  of  purchases,  the  supervision  of  equipment 
and  barrack  furniture,  etc.  The  French  major,  in 
addition  to  these  head-quarters  duties  which  con- 
cern the  well-being  of  the  whole  regiment,  has 
definite  command  of  the  fifth  squadron,  which 
forms  the  depot  for  the  regiment  in  case  of  war. 

From  the  major  the  Capitaine  Tresorier  receives 
the  pay  and  monies  which  have  to  be  distributed 
to  the  regiment.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Conseil 
d'Administration,  from  which  he  receives  his 
authorisation  to  make  payment.  The  pay  of  the 
men  is  handed  to  them  every  fifth  day,  when  the 
Capitaine  Tresorier  or  paymaster  hands  over  to 
the  sergeant-major  of  each  squadron,  or  to  the 
captain  commanding,  the  pay  of  the  squadron  for 
distribution  among  the  men.  He  also  makes  all 
payments  and  issues  demands  for  supplies  for  the 
horses  of  the  regiment,  and  a  lieutenant  or  sub- 
lieutenant is  appointed  to  assist  the  paymaster  in 
his  duties. 


30  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

The  Capitaine  d'Habillement  is  the  head  of  the 
regimental  workshops  of  every  description;  he  is 
held  responsible  for  the  well-being  of  the  armoury, 
clothing  stores,  and  barrack  furniture,  of  which 
establishments  he  keeps  the  accounts.  He  has  in 
addition  to  superintend  all  the  regimental  work- 
shops, including  those  of  the  tailor,  boot-maker, 
saddler,  etc.  His  assistant  is  a  lieutenant  known 
as  the  Porte  fitendard,  who  carries  the  colours  of 
the  regiment  on  parade — for  in  French  armies  the 
colours  are  still  carried  on  parade  and  into  action, 
unlike  the  rule  of  the  British  Army,  which  has 
abandoned  the  carrying  of  colours  into  action  for 
many  years. 

The  Capitaine-Instructeur  is  deputed  to  attend 
to  the  instruction  of  the  non-commissioned  officers 
of  the  regiment,  and  is  held  responsible  for  their 
efficiency  in  matters  of  drill  and  discipline.  He 
also  lectures  junior  officers  on  their  duties  with  re- 
gard to  drill,  shooting,  veterinary  matters,  topog- 
raphy, etc.,  and  he  is  specially  responsible  that  the 
adjutants  of  the  regiment  perform  their  duties 
properly. 

Of  officers  of  the  rank  of  captain,  two  are  ap- 
pointed to  each  squadron,  the  senior  being  the 
Capitaine  Commandant  and  the  junior  the  Capi- 
taine en  second,  or  junior  captain.    The  senior  cap- 


THE  HIGHER  RANKS  31 

tain  is  in  charge  of  the  squadron,  which  in  peace 
time  has  a  strength  of  about  120  officers  and  men, 
but  for  active  service  has  its  strength  raised  con- 
siderably. He  is  responsible  for  the  military  edu- 
cation of  his  squadron,  for  the  discipline  of  the 
rank  and  file,  and  the  condition  of  the  horses  and 
stables,  and  he  is  also  responsible  for  the  pay  and 
supplies  of  the  squadron  handed  over  to  him  by 
the  paymaster  and  others.  He  has  control  of  the 
promotion  of  non-commissioned  officers  and  the 
leave  granted  to  non-commissioned  officers  and 
men.  He  is  responsible  to  the  Chef  d'Escadron  for 
the  efficient  performance  of  his  duties. 

The  second  captain  of  each  squadron  is,  as  re- 
gards squadron  duties,  under  the  orders  of  the 
captain  commanding,  and  is  especially  concerned 
with  all  matters  affecting  food  supplies.  In  addi- 
tion to  his  squadron  duties,  he  has  to  take  his  turn 
every  fifth  week  as  "captain  of  the  week,"  when 
he  has  to  supervise  roll  calls  and  assemblies,  and 
the  mounting  and  dismounting  of  guards.  As  cap- 
tain of  the  week  he  supervises  the  cleanliness  and 
security  of  the  barracks  and  the  work  of  the  police. 

Of  lieutenants  and  sub-lieutenants,  four  are  ap- 
pointed to  each  squadron,  each  being  responsible 
for  a  peloton  or  troop  of  men.  Responsible  to  the 
senior  captain  of  the  squadron  for  the  performance 


32  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

of  his  duties,  the  lieutenant  is  expected  to  instruct 
his  men  at  drill,  supervise  their  work  in  stables, 
and  see  that  their  barrack  rooms  are  properly  kept. 
The  lieutenant  is  empowered  to  hold  such  inspec- 
tions of  kit  and  clothes  as  he  may  think  necessary. 

To  every  regiment  two  doctors  are  appointed, 
holding  the  ranks  of  captain  and  lieutenant  respec- 
tively. Each  regiment  of  cavalry  and  artillery  is 
also  provided  with  two  veterinary  surgeons.  As 
the  duties  of  these  officers  are  of  a  non-combatant 
nature,  they  are  not  materially  concerned  with  the 
discipline  or  military  efficiency  of  the  regiment  to 
which  they  are  attached. 

Corresponding  to  the  warrant-officer  of  the 
British  Army  and  standing  as  intermediary  between 
officers  and  non-commissioned  officers  of  the  French 
Army,  the  adjudants  are  appointed  in  the  number 
of  three  to  a  regiment.  Two  of  these  known  simply 
as  adjudants  have  different  duties  from  the  third,  to 
whom  is  given  the  title  of  Adjudant  Vaguemestre. 
The  two  adjudants  assist  the  work  of  the  captain- 
instructor  in  immediately  superintending  the  effi- 
ciency of  non-commissioned  officers.  All  sergeants 
and  corporals  are  subject  to  their  authority,  and, 
in  alternate  weeks,  each  takes  turn  as  "adjudant  of 
the  week"  under  the  captain  of  the  week.  In  this 
orderly  duty  the  adjudant  of  the  week  keeps  the 


THE  HIGHER  RANKS  33 

rolls  of  sergeants  and  corporals,  and  arranges  their 
turns  of  duty.  He  keeps  the  register  of  punish- 
ments of  non-commissioned  officers  and  the  rank 
and  file,  and  is  responsible  for  the  sounding  of  all 
regimental  calls;  he  transmits  the  orders  of  the 
colonel  to  the  sergeant-majors  of  the  squadrons, 
and  inspects  the  morning  roll-call  of  each  squadron. 
He  attends  to  the  closing  of  canteens  and  sees  that 
"lights  out"  is  obeyed  in  the  barrack  rooms.  The 
position  of  adjudant  in  the  French  Army  is  one  of 
considerable  authority,  which,  to  the  credit  of  the 
service  be  it  said,  is  seldom  abused.  The  Adjudant 
Vaguemestre  is  but  a  minor  official  by  comparison 
with  the  other  two.  He  is  generally  a  non-com- 
missioned officer  who  has  nearly  finished  his  period 
of  service,  and  he  acts  as  regimental  postman  and 
postmaster,  being,  on  the  whole,  a  sort  of  handy 
man  for  all  matters  of  business  in  which  responsi- 
bility is  incurred. 

The  sergeant-major  of  each  squadron  has  almost 
as  much  authority  as  the  adjudant.  He  is,  among 
the  non-commissioned  officers,  what  the  senior  cap- 
tain is  among  commissioned  officers;  he  stands  as 
right-hand  man  to  the  senior  captain,  and,  in  con- 
stant contact  with  the  non-commissioned  officers 
and  men  of  the  squadron,  is  able  very  largely  to 
influence  the  judgment  of  the  captain  with  regard 


34  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

to  the  rank  and  file.  He  gives  all  the  captain's 
orders  to  the  squadron  with  regard  to  instruction, 
discipline,  dress,  etc.  He  is  responsible  for  the 
keeping  of  books  and  registers,  and  for  this  work 
has  appointed  to  him  as  assistants  a  sergeant 
fourrier  and  corporal  fourrier.  He  is  in  charge  of 
the  squadron  stores  and  of  all  the  materiel  of  the 
squadron. 

The  sergeants  are  appointed  in  the  number  of  one 
to  a  troop,  and  are  held  responsible  for  the  efficiency 
of  the  corporals  and  troopers.  They  take  turns 
as  "sergeant  of  the  week"  for  their  squadrons,  a 
duty  corresponding  to  that  of  the  orderly-sergeant 
in  the  British  Army.  Nominally,  the  sergeant  of 
each  troop  is  responsible  to  the  lieutenant  or  sub- 
lieutenant of  the  troop,  but  in  reality  the  sergeant 
is  more  under  control  of  the  squadron  sergeant- 
major,  and,  through  him,  of  the  captain.  The  ser- 
geant drills  the  men  of  his  troop;  he  is  responsible 
that  the  troop  barrack  room  is  properly  kept;  that 
kits  and  clothing  are  kept  clean  and  complete;  that 
arms  and  saddlery,  also,  are  kept  in  order.  As 
sergeant  of  the  week,  the  sergeant  inspects  and  re- 
ports to  the  sergeant-major  the  correctness  of 
morning  and  evening  roll-call;  he  keeps  the  roll  of 
fatigue  men,  and  also  of  men  in  the  squadron  for 
guard;  he  parades  the  sick  for  inspection  by  the 


THE  HIGHER  RANKS  35 

doctor  and  also  parades  all  men  for  fatigues  and 
guards.  The  sergeant  fourrier  holding  the  rank  of 
sergeant  is  more  of  the  nature  of  squadron  clerk, 
as  his  duties,  with  the  exception  of  escorting  men 
sent  to  hospital,  consist  mainly  in  keeping  books 
and  accounts,  in  which  he  has  the  corporal  fourrier 
to  help  him. 

The  corporal  of  the  French  Army  is  placed  in 
charge  of  a  squad  of  about  ten  men;  he  sleeps  in 
the  same  room  with  them,  is  responsible  for  their 
personal  cleanliness  and  the  arrangement  of  their 
kits,  and  sees  that  any  men  of  his  squad  for  guard 
or  special  duty  turn  out  correctly.  He  superin- 
tends the  general  cleaning  of  kit  which  the  captain 
orders  weekly,  and  a  rather  curious  duty  which 
falls  to  his  lot  is  to  see  that  the  troopers  of  his  squad 
change  their  linen  once  a  week.  This,  however,  is 
not  so  curious  as  may  appear  at  first  sight,  for  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  French  Army 
sweeps  up  every  class  of  citizen  into  its  net,  and 
with  some  of  the  men  personal  cleanliness  is  so 
little  a  habit  that  insistence  on  the  point  by  one  in 
authority  is  a  necessity. 

In  addition  to  these  intimate  matters  the  French 
corporal  has  to  superintend  the  drill  of  recruits, 
teach  them  to  arrange  their  kit  and  packs,  and 
show  them  methods  of  cleaning  arms  and  kit,  and 


36  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

grooming  horses.  He  is  empowered  to  inflict  minor 
punishments  which  he  must  report  to  the  sergeant 
in  charge  of  the  troop.  The  corporal  is  responsible 
for  the  maintenance  of  order  in  the  barrack  room, 
for  the  proper  serving  of  meals,  and  the  compliance 
with  the  order  for  "lights  out" ;  he  takes  turn  as 
corporal  of  the  week  with  his  fellows,  and  in  that 
capacity  is  deputy  for  and  assistant  to  the  sergeant 
of  the  week.  Altogether,  the  corporal  of  the 
French  Army  has  a  very  busy  time,  and  in  addition 
to  this  his  position  is  not  so  secure  as  that  of  the 
British  corporal;  the  latter's  rank  counts  as  a  defi- 
nite promotion,  while  the  rank  of  the  French  cor- 
poral is  only  an  appointment,  and  he  may  find  him- 
self "reduced"  much  more  quickly  than  the  British 
man  in  an  equivalent  position. 

The  conscript  system,  leading  to  a  number  of 
unwilling  soldiers,  is  much  more  provocative  of 
punishments  than  the  voluntary  system.  In  the 
latter,  all  men  who  enlist  get  the  habit  of  making 
the  best  of  their  service;  they  have  joined  the 
army  of  their  own  free  will,  and  have  only  them- 
selves to  blame  if  they  do  not  like  it.  In  a  con- 
script army,  however,  there  are  many  who  hate  the 
limitations  imposed  on  them  by  service  in  time  of 
peace,  and  enter  only  with  a  view  to  getting  the 
business  over  and  getting  back   to  their  former 


THE  HIGHER  RANKS  37 

positions  in  life;  it  is  a  disagreeable  necessity,  the 
period  of  military  service,  and  they  are  there  to  do 
as  little  as  possible,  without  any  regard  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  country,  though  a  national  emergency 
like  the  present  finds  every  man  willing  to  do  his 
part.  Not  that  such  an  attitude  is  the  rule  in  time 
of  peace,  but,  especially  among  the  very  lowest 
classes,  it  is  not  unusual.  Since  it  is  impossible  to 
make  sheep  and  goats  of  the  men,  but  all  must  be 
treated  alike,  discipline  is  much  more  rigid  and 
severe  than  in  the  British  Army — which  is  the  only 
voluntary  European  army  from  which  comparisons 
can  be  drawn.  The  view  is  taken — ^necessarily 
taken — that  men  must  be  compelled  to  do  their  work 
and  learn  their  lessons  of  drill  and  shooting;  for 
those  who  give  trouble  in  any  way,  there  is  the 
salle  de  police,  or  guard-room,  the  prison  for  worse 
offences,  and,  for  hardened  offenders,  there  is 
service  in  the  dreaded  disciplinary  battalions  of 
Algeria.  This  last  form  of  punishment  is  resorted 
to  only  in  the  case  of  men  who  have  "committed 
one  or  several  faults,  the  gravity  of  which  makes 
any  other  mode  of  repression  inadequate." 

Contrary  to  the  rule  of  the  British  Army,  in 
which  only  commanding  and  company  or  squadron 
officers  are  empowered  to  inflict  punishment,  in  the 
French  Army  any  man  can  be  punished  by  any 


38  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

other  man  holding  a  rank  superior  to  his  own, 
under  all  circumstances  that  may  arise.  As  an  in- 
stance: if  a  private  of  a  British  regiment  insulted 
a  corporal  of  another  regiment,  the  case  would  be 
reported  to  the  man's  own  commanding  officer, 
who  in  due  time  would  investigate  the  case  and 
inflict  the  requisite  punishment  for  the  offence;  in 
the  French  Army,  if  a  private  were  guilty  of  a 
similar  offence,  the  injured  corporal  would  be  at 
liberty  to  inflict  the  punishment  on  his  own  ac- 
count; his  action  would  have  to  be  confirmed  by 
a  superior  officer,  but,  under  the  rules  governing 
the  administration  of  punishment,  there  would  be 
no  difficulty  about  that. 

The  officer  in  command  of  a  regiment  has  power 
to  increase,  diminish,  or  even  cancel  punishments 
inflicted  by  inferior  officers,  and  the  captain  in 
charge  of  a  squadron  has  a  like  power  over  the 
subordinate  officers  directly  under  his  command 
and  over  the  punishments  they  may  inflict. 

This  system  of  giving  so  much  power  to  all  has 
more  against  it  than  in  its  favour.  Certainly,  given 
a  just  junior  officer  or  non-commissioned  officer,  he 
is  more  likely  to  inflict  a  punishment  that  fits  the 
crime  than  the  commanding  officer  to  whom  he 
may  report  the  case — he  knows  all  the  circum- 
stances better  than  the  man  to  whom  he  may  tell 


THE  HIGHER  RANKS  39 

them,  and,  in  direct  contact  with  the  offender  at 
the  time  the  offence  was  committed,  is  not  so  likely 
to  err  on  the  side  of  undue  severity  or  that  of  undue 
leniency — and  that  is  about  all  that  can  be  said  in 
favour  of  the  system.  Against  it  must  be  said  that 
it  places  in  the  hands  of  very  many  men,  of  all 
ranks  and  grades,  a  tremendous  power  which  may 
easily  be  abused;  under  such  a  system  a  sergeant 
or  corporal  who  has  a  grudge  against  a  particular 
man  can  make  that  man's  life  a  perfect  misery  to 
him,  and,  since  in  a  conscript  army  authority  must 
be  upheld  at  all  costs,  even  more  than  in  a  volunteer 
army,  the  right  of  complaint  which  belongs  to  the 
man  is  not  often  of  much  use  to  them — discipline 
would  be  impaired  if  officers  upheld  their  men 
against  their  non-commissioned  officers. 

Further,  officers  are  more  liable  to  punishment 
in  the  French  Army  than  in  the  British.  In  the 
latter  force,  a  court-martial  on  an  officer  is  a  very 
rare  thing,  but  in  the  French  service  the  equivalent 
to  a  court-martial  is  not  an  infrequent  occurrence, 
and  a  certain  percentage  -of  officers  get  "confined 
to  room,"  "confined  to  fortress,"  suspended  from 
duty  for  varying  periods,  and  cashiered  (dismissed 
from  the  service), — these  things  happening  with 
considerably  greater  frequency  than  in  the  British 
Army.     It  must  be  said,  on  the  other  hand,  that 


40  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

the  French  officer  has  more  required  of  him  in  time 
of  peace  than  the  British  officer;  he  is  required  to 
be  in  closer  contact  with  his  men,  and  to  undertake 
more  arduous  duties,  and,  on  the  whole,  French 
officers  are  keen  soldiers,  intent  on  the  performance 
of  their  duties,  taking  themselves  and  their  work 
very  seriously.  The  lesson  of  Metz  in  1870  has  not 
been  wasted  on  the  modern  French  Army,  and 
the  knowledge  that  some  day  the  nation  would 
again  take  up  arms  against  its  eastern  neigh- 
bour has  led  to  a  strict  maintenance  of  efficiency  on 
the  part  of  the  officers  of  the  Army,  and  to  a 
keenness  quite  equal  to  that  shown  in  a  volun- 
tary force. 

Non-commissioned  officers  are  subject  to  punish- 
ments of  a  more  severe  nature  than  those  inflicted 
on  their  fellows  in  the  British  Army — the  constant 
comparison  between  the  two,  in  matters  of  disci- 
pline, is  necessary  in  order  to  give  a  clear  idea  of 
conditions  of  service  for  all  ranks  of  the  French 
Army.  The  British  non-commissioned  officer  is 
either  reprimanded  or  reduced  to  the  ranks;  the 
French  non-commissioned  officer  may  be  confined 
to  barracks  after  evening  roll-call,  confined  to  his 
room  for  slight  breaches  of  discipline,  or  sent  to 
prison  and  still  retain  his  rank  on  his  release,  a 
thing  impossible  in  the  British  service.     Only  for 


THE  HIGHER  RANKS  41 

repeated  misdemeanours  are  non-commissioned  of- 
ficers reduced  to  the  ranks,  while  one  offence  is  suf- 
ficient to  ensure  this  punishment  in  the  British 
service.  Privates  are  punished  in  various  ways 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  offence  committed. 
The  lightest  punishment  of  all  consists  of  extra 
fatigue  duty;  next  in  order  comes  inspection  on 
guard  parade,  the  man  in  question  being  compelled 
to  parade  with  the  guard  in  full  marching  order  for 
a  definite  number  of  times;  confinement  to  bar- 
racks for  a  stated  period  is  inflicted  for  still  more 
serious  but  still  light  offences;  being  sent  to  the 
salle  de  police  is  a  considerably  severer  form  of 
punishment,  and  consists  in  the  offenders  being 
kept  at  night  in  the  guard-room,  doing  ordinary 
duty  during  the  day,  and,  in  addition,  doing  all 
sorts  of  fatigues  and  making  themselves  scavengers 
for  the  regiment.  Prison  and  solitary  confinement 
in  cells  are  two  forms  of  punishment  allotted  to 
really  bad  characters,  on  whom  the  previously 
named  forms  of  punishment  have  not  sufficient  ef- 
fect. Finally,  there  are  the  Algerian  disciplinary 
battalions,  and  the  man  who  is  sent  to  one  of  these 
may  be  reckoned  as  a  criminal,  as  a  rule.  It  is  a 
curious  fact  that  reading  a  newspaper  constitutes 
an  offence  against  discipline  in  the  French  Army, 


42  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

and  no  newspapers  are  permitted  to  be  brought 
into  barracks. 

The  list  of  officers  given  in  this  chapter  has  been 
taken  from  the  staff  of  a  French  cavalry  regiment, 
but  it  applies  almost  identically  to  artillery  units, 
while,  in  the  case  of  infantry  units,  it  is  necessary 
only  to  delete  all  that  refers  to  the  care  of  horses, 
and  the  staff  of  officers  and  non-commissioned 
officers  is  practically  the  same  as  in  the  cavalry. 
The  French  "regiment"  of  artillery  is  a  similar  unit 
of  strength  to  that  of  most  great  continental  armies, 
though  it  has  no  equivalent  in  the  British  service, 
where  the  artillery  is  grouped  in  units  known  as 
brigades,  of  not  much  more  than  half  the  strength 
of  the  continental  regiment.  The  French  cavalry 
regiment  also  is  considerably  stronger  than  the 
British  cavalry  unit,  containing  five  squadrons  to 
the  latter's  four.  This  brings  the  cavalry  regiment 
of  the  French  Army  nearly  up  to  the  strength  of 
the  infantry  unit. 

The  matter  of  punishments  has  been  dwelt  on  at 
some  length,  owing  to  the  prominence  given  to 
punishment  in  the  French  Army.  Made  up  as  it  is 
of  every  class,  the  members  of  which  are  compelled 
to  serve  whether  they  like  it  or  no,  punishment  is  a 
necessity,  and  a  frequent  one  at  that,  in  the  case 
of  all  ranks.     It  does  not,  however,  alter  the  fact 


THE  HIGHER  RANKS  43 

that  the  great  majority  of  French  conscripts  are 
keen  and  willing  soldiers,  who  make  the  best  of 
their  service  and  give  a  good  account  of  them- 
selves. 


CHAPTER    IV 
INFANTRY 

SINCE  the  training  of  the  French  soldier  lasts 
but  two  years,  it  is  of  little  use  making  a 
distinction  between  recruits  and  others,  for  two 
years  is  a  very  brief  period  into  which  to  compress 
all  that  a  soldier  must  learn  in  order  to  become 
efficient.  It  may  be  noted  that,  in  the  British 
service,  three  years  is  considered  the  shortest  period 
in  which  an  infantry  soldier  can  be  turned  out 
as  fully  efficient.  Again,  it  must  always  be  borne 
in  mind,  in  considering  the  French  Army,  that  all 
must  be  taught  their  work.  There  is  as  great  a 
percentage  of  stupid  people  in  France  as  in  any 
other  country;  a  voluntary  army  is  at  liberty  to 
reject  fools  as  undesirable,  but  the  nation  with  a 
conscript  system  must  train  the  fools  as  well  as  the 
wise  ones,  for,  admitting  the  principle  that  strength 
consists  in  numbers  of  trained  men,  then  every  rifle 
counts  so  long  as  its  holder  is  capable  of  firing. 

The  conscript,  coming  to  the  colours  on  the  first 
of  October,  is  usually  given  the  choice  of  the  arm 

44 


INFANTRY  45 

of  service  in  which  he  will  do  his  two  years'  train- 
ing. The  subject  of  this  chapter  has  elected  to 
serve  in  the  infantry  of  the  line.  He  may  have  just 
completed  an  expensive  education,  or  he  may  have 
come  from  Montmartre,  the  slums  of  a  provincial 
town,  the  landes  of  Brittany,  or  a  village  of  French 
Lorraine;  in  civilian  life  he  may  have  been  a  peas- 
ant, a  street  arab,  a  student  of  philosophy,  a  future 
president  of  the  Republic — it  is  all  the  same  on  that 
first  of  October,  for  now  he  is  simply  a  conscript 
with  two  years'  military  training  before  him,  and 
a  halfpenny  a  day  for  his  pay,  together  with  a 
periodical  allowance  of  tobacco,  which  is  one  of 
the  luxuries  that  the  French  Army  allows  to  its 
soldiers. 

Arrived  at  his  station  the  conscript  finds  his 
room,  and  is  allotted  a  bed  therein.  He  finds  him- 
self placed  under  a  corporal  who  will  teach  him 
all  about  his  rifle,  manifest  an  interest  in  the  clean- 
liness of  his  linen,  see  that  he  gets  his  hair  cut, 
instruct  him  in  drill,  turn  him  out  of  bed  in  the 
morning,  and  see  that  he  is  in,  or  accounted  for, 
when  the  roll  is  called  at  night.  The  first  business 
of  the  conscript  is  to  get  fitted  out  from  the  store 
in  which  the  battalion  keeps  clothes  for  its  men. 
Here  he  gets  his  boots,  his  parade  uniform,  and  his 
fatigue  outfit.     His  captain,  with  the  assistance  of 


46  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

the  master  tailor,  passes  the  outfit  as  complete  and 
correct,  and  the  conscript  says  good-bye  to  civilian 
attire  for  a  period  of  two  years.  There  was  one 
youngster,  a  Breton  youth,  who  mourned  for  a 
week  or  two  after  coming  to  the  colours,  because 
the  cow  at  home  would  not  take  its  food  from  other 
people  as  it  would  from  him;  there  are  many  who 
remember  how  they  used  to  milk  the  goats,  and 
these  make  humorous  little  tragedies  for  a  time,  for 
their  fellow  conscripts. 

Like  the  British  infantryman,  the  conscript  is 
concerned  principally  in  learning  to  march  and 
shoot,  and  use  his  bayonet.  In  the  matter  of  march- 
ing, to  which  reference  has  already  been  made,  the 
training  of  the  conscript  is  a  complicated  business. 
No  walking  that  he  has  ever  done  as  a  civilian 
bears  any  relation  to  this  curious  half -shuffling  trot, 
unless  by  chance  he  is  a  native  of  the  Vosges  coun- 
try, and  in  that  case  he  may  recall  a  rapid  climb 
up  some  steep  hill,  to  which  this  business  of  the 
march  is  more  nearly  akin  than  to  anything  else. 
Perhaps  he  does  not  take  kindly  to  his  work  at 
first,  but,  in  addition  to  the  corporal  under  whose 
charge  he  is  placed,  there  are  the  men  who  sleep 
on  either  side  of  him  to  inculcate  in  him  the  first 
principles  of  discipline,  for  there  is  nothing  on  earth 
half   so   comforting  to   the   man   placed   under   a 


INFANTRY  47 

system  as  to  be  able  to  give  advice  to  a  new-comer 
to  the  system  and  its  disabilities. 

Thus,  with  the  assistance  of  the  corporal  and  of 
his  comrades,  the  new  conscript  settles  to  his  work. 
Within  a  couple  of  months  he  has  begun  to  under- 
stand the  principle  of  this  marching  business,  and, 
in  common  with  all  youngsters,  he  takes  a  pride 
in  his  new  accomplishment.  It  is  a  tiring  business, 
certainemenfj  but  then,  what  would  you?  A  man 
must  be  taught,  and,  after  all,  it  is  only  for  two 
years,  at  the  end  of  which  one  may  go  back  to 
the  cow  or  the  goats,  or  the  kerbstone,  or  the  life 
of  one  who  sits  above  these  things — and  Pierre, 
who  occupies  the  corner  bed,  is  an  amusing  rascal ; 
it  is  not  so  bad,  this  military  life,  after  all,  but  one 
would  there  were  a  little  more  money  and  a  little 
more  time.    However   .    .    . 

The  conscript  must  be  taught  to  shoot.  First  of 
all,  and  not  infrequently  as  a  matter  of  necessity, 
he  is  taught  the  difference  between  the  butt  and 
the  muzzle  of  a  rifle.  He  is  taught  how  to  hold 
the  thing,  how  to  clean  it,  how  to  press  its  trigger, 
how  to  load  it,  and  how  to  adjust  its  sights.  He 
is  made  familiar  with  the  weapon  in  the  fullest 
sense  of  the  word  "familiar,"  for  shooting  is  not 
altogether  a  matter  of  blazing  away  ammunition; 
the   good   shot  is   the   man   who   has  a  thorough 


48  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

knowledge  of  the  various  parts  of  his  weapon,  and 
who  has  been  taught  to  nurse  it  and  care  for  it 
just  as  the  Breton  lad  nursed  and  cared  for  his  cow. 
The  equivalent  of  the  British  Morris  tube  is  requi- 
sitioned to  instruct  the  conscript  in  the  first  elements 
of  firing  a  rifle.  Across  a  large  white  target  a 
thin  black  line  is  drawn  horizontally,  and  the  con- 
script is  set  to  firing  at  this  target  until  he  can 
make  reasonably  consistent  practice  on  the  black 
line.  His  corporal  is  at  hand  to  correct  defects, 
and  his  sergeant  is  there  too,  to  instruct  and  ever 
to  instruct.  By  and  by  the  conscript  begins  to  feel 
with  regard  to  his  shooting  as  he  feels  about  the 
marching.  One  must  learn,  and  rifle  shooting  is 
not  an  unpleasant  business,  though  the  cleaning  of 
the  rifle  is  another  matter,  and  they  are  wonderfully 
particular  about  the  way  in  which  it  is  done.  That 
corporal  and  that  sergeant  must  have  eyes  behind 
them. 

Instruction  in  the  use  of  the  bayonet  is  very 
largely  a  similar  sort  of  business,  a  matter  of  per- 
petual care  on  the  part  of  the  instructors  and  of 
gradually  increasing  efficiency  on  the  part  of  the 
conscript.  Then  there  is  the  gymnastic  class,  by 
means  of  which  limbs  are  made  supple,  and  muscles 
strengthened — it  is  only  by  continuous  training  that 
the  marvellous  efficiency  to  which  the  French  con- 


INFANTRY  49 

script  attains  in  the  short  space  of  two  years 
is  compassed.  There  is  no  "furlough  season" 
as  British  troops  know  it;  the  conscript  goes 
up  to  work  all  the  time,  and  in  that  period  of 
work  he  is  transformed  from  hobbledehoy  to 
man. 

Marching,  the  use  of  rifle  and  bayonet,  and  gym- 
nastic classes,  do  not  by  any  means  exhaust  the 
schedule  of  conscript  training.  There  is  all  the 
business  of  barrack  room  life,  the  cleaning  of  equip- 
ment in  which  tlie  corporal  is  ever  at  hand  to  in- 
struct, and  men  in  their  second  year  are  also  at 
hand  to  advise  and  give  hints;  there  are  fatigues, 
white-washing,  trench-digging,  and  all  sorts  of 
things  of  which  in  pre-military  days,  probably,  the 
conscript  never  dreamed.  There  are  route  marches 
with  the  battalion,  the  commanding  officer  and 
band  at  the  head.  There  is  always  something  to  do, 
always  something  waiting  to  be  done,  and  in  look- 
ing forward  there  is  an  endless  succession  of  very 
busy  days  to  contemplate.  One  goes  to  bed  tired — 
very  healthily  tired — and  one  wakens  to  work.  The 
work  is  not  always  pleasant,  but  it  has  the  charm 
— if  such  it  can  be  called — of  never-ending  variety. 
A  monotonous  variety  it  may  be,  but  then,  one  has 
little  time  to  think,  and  then  there  is  always  the 


50 


THE  FRENCH  ARMY 


canteen,  and  Jean,  who  sleeps  in  the  corner  opposite 
Pierre,  has  just  received  his  allowance  from  home. 
There  is  yet  ten  minutes  before  parade — we  will  go 
with  Jean  to  the  canteen.   .    .    .. 


CHAPTER   V 
OFF   DUTY 

THERE  is  a  strict  but  unwritten  law  of  the 
French  Army  as  regards  the  canteen :  no 
man  may  take  a  drink  by  himself.  Faire  Suisse  is 
the  term  applied,  if  one  goes  to  the  canteen  alone, 
and  the  rest  of  the  men  in  the  conscript's  room 
look  on  him  as  something  of  a  mean  fellow  if  he 
does  such  a  thing  as  this.  Of  course,  it  works 
out  at  the  same  thing  in  the  end,  and  share  and 
share  alike  is  not  a  bad  principle,  while  it  is  emi- 
nently good  Republicanism.  Jean  must  share  his 
remittance  from  home  with  somebody;  he  can  pick 
the  men  whom  he  desires  to  treat,  but  he  must  not 
lay  himself  open  to  the  accusation  of  faire  Suisse, 
no  matter  what  arm  of  the  service  he  represents. 
It  is  bad  comradeship,  for  his  fellows,  when  they 
have  a  slice  of  luck,  would  not  think  of  doing  it. 
Why  should  he? 

Thus,  and  with  justice,  they  reason,  and  out  of 
such  reasoning  comes  the  sharing  of  the  last  drops 
of  water  with  a  comrade  on  the  field,  the  acts  of 

51 


52  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

self-denial  and  courageous  self-sacrifice  for  which 
men  of  the  French  Army  have  always  been  famed. 
It  is  a  little  thing  in  itself,  this  compulsory  sharing 
of  one's  luck,  but  it  leads  to  great  things,  at  times. 

Should  Jean  go  to  the  canteen  alone,  punish- 
ment awaits  him  from  his  comrades.  If  he  is  well 
liked,  he  will  get  off  with  having  his  bed  tipped  up 
after  he  has  got  to  sleep  at  night.  If  he  is  a  surly 
fellow,  he  may  reckon  on  what  British  troops 
know  as  a  "blanket  court-martial,"  which  means 
that  his  comrades  of  the  room  will  catch  him  and 
place  him  in  a  blanket,  the  edges  of  which  are  held 
all  round  by  his  fellow  soldiers.  At  a  given  signal 
the  blanket  will  be  given  a  mighty  heave  upward 
by  all  who  are  holding  it,  and  Jean  will  fly  ceiling- 
ward,  to  alight  again  in  the  blanket  and 'again  be 
heaved  up.  This  process,  repeated  a  dozen  times 
or  so,  leaves  Jean  with  not  a  sufficiency  of  breath 
to  beg  for  mercy,  while  at  the  same  time  he  is 
quite  undamaged,  and,  if  he  is  wise,  he  will  not 
incur  the  accusation  of  faire  Suisse  again. 

He  may  be  fool  enough  to  report  the  matter  to 
his  sergeant,  as,  by  the  rules  of  the  service,  he  is 
entitled  to  do.  In  that  case  the  sergeant  will 
threaten  Jean's  comrades  with  punishment  for  caus- 
ing annoyance  to  a  man,  but  the  threat,  as  the 
men  well  know,  is  all  that  will  happen  to  them — 


OFF  DUTY  S3 

but  not  all  that  will  transpire  as  regards  Jean. 
The  French  soldier  abhors  a  sneak,  and  treats  him 
as  he  deserves.  Jean  will  get  a  rough  time  for 
many  days  to  come,  and  will  not  dare  to  com- 
plain to  the  sergeant  again.  It  is  rough  justice, 
but  effective;  so  long  as  a  man  plays  the  game 
properly  with  his  fellows,  he  is  all  right,  and  the 
sergeant  knows  it.  Hence  Jean  may  make  com- 
plaints till  he  is  black  in  the  face  about  the  con- 
duct of  his  fellows,  but  by  so  doing  he  will  only 
make  himself  unpopular,  and  before  he  has  got 
far  into  his  first  year  of  service  he  learns  to  take 
his  own  part,  and  not  to  go  running  to  the  sergeant 
with  his  little  troubles.  It  does  not  pay — and,  if 
it  did,  the  French  Army  would  not  be  what  it  is 
in  the  matter  of  comradeship  and  good  feeling. 

One  good  thing  about  the  canteen  is  its  cheap- 
ness. One  can  get  coffee  and  a  roll — which  amounts 
to  a  French  conscript's  breakfast — for  the  equiva- 
lent of  three  halfpence,  and  this  charge  is  a  fair 
sample  of  the  prices  of  all  things.  Whatever  one 
may  ask  for,  too,  it  is  served  in  good  quality,  for  the 
canteen  is  under  strict  supervision  of  the  officers, 
who  are  quick  to  note  and  remedy  any  cause  for 
complaint  on  the  part  of  the  men. 

Early  morning  breakfast,  as  it  is  served  in  the 
British  Army,   is  unknown  in   French  units.     On 


54  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

turning  out  in  the  morning,  coffee  is  brought  round 
to  the  barrack  rooms,  but  the  first  real  meal  of  the 
day  is  "soup"  at  ten  o'clock.  The  food  is  properly- 
served  in  dishes,  and  a  corporal  or  a  man  told  off 
for  the  duty  is  at  the  head  of  each  table  to  help 
each  man  to  his  allowance,  for  which  an  enamelled 
plate  is  provided.  Crockery  is  unsafe  in  a  barrack 
room,  and  the  fact  is  wisely  recognised. 

The  canteen  of  the  British  Army,  so  far  as  drinks 
are  concerned,  provides  beer  only  for  its  men,  but 
beer  is  scarcely  ever  seen  in  a  French  canteen. 
Various  brands  of  wine  are  at  the  disposal  of  the 
conscript,  and  it  is  possible  to  get  a  bottle  of  drink- 
able stuff  for  fivepence,  though  in  order  to  obtain 
a  really  good  brand  one  must  pay  at  least  a  franc, 
for  which  the  wine  obtained  is  equal  to  that  for 
which  many  a  London  restaurant  will  charge  half 
a  crown.  Wine  is  the  staple  drink  of  the  Army, 
though  brandy  finds  favour  among  the  hardened 
drinkers.  The  man  who  goes  to  the  canteen  for  a 
bottle  of  wine  to  share  with  a  comrade  must  not 
be  regarded  as  a  tippler,  for  the  clarets  which  the 
canteen  provides  are  not  very  alcoholic  beverages, 
containing  as  they  do  but  little  more  alcohol  to  the 
pint  than  supposedly  "teetotal"  ginger  beer  of  some 
brands. 

To  each  company  of  infantry,  as  to  each  squad- 


OFF  DUTY  55 

ron  of  cavalry  and  battery  of  artillery,  is  allotted  a 
barber,  whose  business  is  to  shave  every  conscript 
of  his  company  at  least  twice  a  week  free  of  cost, 
the  barber  being  remunerated  by  the  authorities. 
Since  most  men  need  to  shave  every  day  in  order 
to  fulfil  the  requirements  of  parade  appearance, 
it  is  obvious  that  the  efforts  of  the  barber  in  this 
direction  must  be  supplemented  by  the  men  them- 
selves, and  on  the  whole  the  barber  gets  an  easy 
time  as  a  rule,  for  the  man  who  shaves  himself 
three  times  a  week  will  usually  get  the  business 
done  without  troubling  the  barber  at  any  time. 

Complaints  used  to  be  made,  especially  in  infan- 
try stations,  about  the  sanitation  and  lack  of  wash- 
ing accommodation  in  French  barracks,  but  modern 
custom  has  remedied  all  this.  Chief  cause  of 
reformation  was  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  which 
showed  that  an  army  is  twice  as  effective  if  mat- 
ters of  sanitation  are  properly  attended  to — it  does 
not  pay  to  have  men  falling  sick  from  the  presence 
of  nursery  beds  for  infectious  diseases.  The 
French  Army,  ever  first  in  experiment  for  the 
efficiency  of  its  men  and  in  search  of  ways  to  in- 
crease the  fighting  value  of  the  forces  available, 
has  taken  the  lessons  of  modern  sanitation  to 
heart.  In  practically  all  barracks,  now,  the  soldier 
can  enjoy  a  hot  bath  or  a  cold  one  when  he  wishes; 


56  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

all  that  is  still  to  be  desired  is  a  greater  regard 
for  necessary  sanitary  measures,  and  a  greater  re- 
gard for  personal  cleanliness  among  the  men  them- 
selves. The  peasant  lad,  who  has  lived  a  compara- 
tively lonely  life  in  absolutely  healthy  surroundings, 
does  not  understand  at  first  that  barrack  life  exposes 
him  to  fresh  dangers,  and  he  has  to  be  taught  what, 
to  a  town  dweller,  are  elementary  facts  as  regards 
infection.  For  this  reason,  tubercular  and  allied 
complaints  still  rank  rather  high  in  the  medical 
statistics  of  the  French  Army,  though  every  year 
sees  an  improvement  in  this  respect. 

But  a  dissertation  of  this  kind  has  taken  us  far 
from  the  canteen,  and  the  methods  employed  by 
the  conscript  in  spending  his  spare  time.  Not  that 
the  canteen  is  the  only  place  of  amusement,  but  in 
stated  hours,  as  in  the  British  Army,  the  canteen 
is  the  rallying  point  of  men  off  duty.  It  is  closed 
to  men  undergoing  salle  de  police  Bt  all  times,  and 
this  forms  a  not  inconsiderable  part  of  their  punish- 
ment; for  to  a  soldier  the  canteen  is  not  merely  a 
place  where  he  may  obtain  refreshments,  alcoholic 
and  otherwise,  but  also  a  place  to  meet  his  friends, 
hear  a  good  song,  discuss  the  doings  of  various 
companies,  and  of  various  friends,  whom  he  meets 
here  and  with  whom  he  can  compare  notes.  The 
barrack  room  may  not  contain  more  than  one  close 


OFF  DUTY  57 

friend — if  that — and  the  other  men  in  the  squad 
to  which  the  conscript  belongs  may  be  of  different 
provinces,  of  totally  different  ideals  and  ways  of 
thought — as  if  a  Highland  Scot  were  planted  down 
in  a  squad  of  Londoners.  In  the  canteen,  however, 
a  man  can  be  certain  of  meeting  and  sitting  down 
for  a  confab  with  his  own  chums,  men  not  only  of 
his  year — that  is,  joining  on  the  same  first  of 
October  as  himself — but  also  hailing,  perhaps,  from 
the  same  town  or  village  as  himself,  glad  to  share 
a  bottle  of  claret  at  a  franc  the  bottle  and  to  talk 
over  the  things  left  behind  with  civilian  clothing. 

As  for  canteen  songs,  one  may  guess  that  in  the 
French  Army  there  is  always  plenty  of  real  talent, 
for  the  nation  as  a  whole,  like  all  Latin  nationali- 
ties, is  a  very  musical  one,  and  since  all  come  to 
the  Army,  the  singers  come  with  the  rest.  The 
songs,  perhaps,  are  not  of  the  highest  drawing-room 
order,  even  for  French  drawing-rooms,  but  the 
musical  and  vocal  abilities  of  the  singers  are  beyond 
question ;  for  in  a  gathering  of  men  where  the  best 
can  be  obtained,  little  short  of  the  best  ventures 
to  bring  itself  to  notice. 

This  mention  of  canteen  songs  recalls  the  fact 
that  the  French  infantryman  beguiles  the  tedium 
of  route-marching  by  songs,  interminably  long 
songs  which  go  on  and  on  for  miles;  in  recalling 


58  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

what  the  next  verse  will  be,  a  man  forgets  the 
number  of  miles  between  him  and  the  end  of  the 
march,  or  he  thinks  he  may  be  able  to,  which 
amounts  to  very  nearly  the  same  thing.  They  still 
sing  songs  that  were  in  vogue  at  the  time  of  Fon- 
tenoy,  as  they  march  at  ease  along  the  endless 
straight  roads  of  the  country,  with  their  rifles  slung 
anyhow  and  their  formations  broken  up  that  friend 
may  march  with  friend.  This  is  when  marching 
"at  ease"  only,  for  let  a  column  of  marching  in- 
fantrymen come  to  the  streets  of  a  town,  and  they 
immediately  stiffen  up  to  show  themselves  at  their 
best  before  the  girls  at  the  windows.  The  Army 
of  the  Republic  is  a  part  of  the  nation,  but  the 
women  of  the  nation  manifest  no  less  interest  in  it 
for  the  fact  that  their  fathers  and  brothers  have 
served.  There  is  something  in  the  sound  of  a 
military  band  and  the  sight  of  a  column  of  uni- 
formed men  that  will  always  bring  faces  to  the 
windows  of  a  French  house.  "So  our  Jacques  is 
perhaps  marching  somewhere,"  they  say,  or — 
"Thus  we  marched  to  relieve  Bazaine,"  will  remark 
a  veteran  of  the  '70  campaign,  feeling  the  while 
that  these  men  may  yet  make  of  "  '70"  a  thing 
no  longer  to  remember  in  connection  with  lost 
provinces.  And,  once  the  town  or  village  street  is 
left  behind,  and  the  road  stretches  unbroken  before 


OFF  DUTY  59 

the  column,  the  men  begin  to  sing  again,  and  their 
officers  smile  at  the  song — they  are  too  wise,  in  the 
French  Army,  to  suppress  the  singing  and  the 
cigarette  smoking,  and  thus  the  men  march  well. 
As  well,  certainly,  as  any  infantry  in  the  world, 
and  probably  better  than  most. 

Although  it  is  a  conscript  army,  there  are  regi- 
mental traditions,  as  in  the  British  or  in  any  other 
service.  Your  conscript  in  his  second  year  of  ser- 
vice will  tell  how  his  regiment  captured  the  colours 
here,  or  saved  the  position  there,  in  the  way-back 
days,  and  is  nearly  as  proud  of  it  as  if  he,  instead 
of  the  fellow  soldiers  of  his  great-grandfather,  were 
concerned  in  the  business.  Esprit  de  corps,  though 
now  a  common  phrase  in  connection  with  the 
British  Army,  was  first  of  all  a  French  idiom — and 
is  yet,  and  an  untranslatable  one  too — designed  to 
express  the  French  soldier's  pride  in  his  own  unit 
of  the  service,  or  in  his  own  branch  of  the  service. 
At  the  present  time,  it  has  as  much  application  to 
the  French  Army  as  in  the  day  when  the  phrase 
was  coined ;  pride  in  his  own  powers  of  endurance, 
and  pride  in  the  unit  in  which  he  serves,  still 
characterise  the  French  conscript,  and  in  the  last 
ten  years  or  so  this  feeling  has  grown  to  such  an 
extent  as  to  place  the  French  Army,  although  a 
conscript  organisation,  on  a  level  with  a  voluntary 
force. 


CHAPTER   VI 
CAVALRY 

AS  in  all  armies,  the  French  cavalryman  con- 
siders himself  as  good  as  two  infantrymen; 
the  origin  of  this  may  probably  be  traced  back 
through  time  to  feudal  days,  when  only  the  better 
classes  of  vassals  were  able  to  provide  horses  with 
which  to  come  to  the  standard  of  the  feudal  chief. 
Certain  it  is  that  even  in  these  present  days  of 
scientific  warfare,  when  the  guns  and  rifles  count 
equally  with  the  swords  of  an  Army  Corps,  the 
cavalryman  still  looks  on  himself  as  a  superior 
person,  more  efficient  and  more  to  be  admired  than 
a  mere  gunner  or  a  mere  man  in  a  line  regiment 
of  infantry.  Certainly,  he  rides,  and  this  fact  he 
is  always  ready  to  impress  on  the  infantryman; 
what  he  keeps  quiet  about  is  that  he  has  to  groom 
the  horse  he  rides,  and  to  attend  to  its  needs  when 
the  infantryman,  having  finished  his  march  at 
practically  the  same  time  the  cavalryman  finished 
his,  has  his  meal  cooked  and  eaten  before  his  fel- 
low of  the  mounted  unit  has  got  away  from  stables. 

60 


CAVALRY  6i 

Considering  that  the  time  of  the  infantry  con- 
script is  fully  occupied  in  the  compression  of  all 
his  tuition  into  his  two  years  of  service,  it  may  be 
imagined  that  the  way  of  the  cavalryman  is  not  an 
easy  one,  for  he  has  far  more  to  learn  than  the 
infantryman.  He  has  not  only  to  learn  to  use  the 
carbine  which  corresponds  in  his  case  to  the  infantry 
rifle,  and  to  execute  movements  on  foot,  but  he  has 
to  groom  his  horse,  clean  his  saddle,  keep  the  sta- 
bles in  order,  and  do  all  the  things  that  are  absolute 
necessities  where  horses  are  concerned,  as  well  as 
having  nearly  twice  as  much  personal  kit  to  look 
after  as  the  infantryman — and  then  he  has  to  be 
trained  in  the  use  of  the  sword,  that  of  the  lance 
in  some  regiments,  and  to  add  to  his  other  drills 
the  business  of  riding  school. 

The  horses  of  French  cavalry,  as  a  whole,  are  not 
so  well  cared  for  as  those  of  the  English  cavalry 
regiment;  methods  used  in  connection  with  the 
care  of  horses  are  not  so  complete  and  perfect,  and 
the  stock  itself  is  not  such  well-bred  stuff,  as  a 
whole,  as  the  horseflesh  that  goes  to  the  British 
Army  from  Irish  and  other  breeding  establish- 
ments. At  the  same  time,  the  cavalry  trooper  is 
taught  how  to  care  for  his  mount  in  his  own  way, 
and,  trained  in  a  harder  school,  French  horses  of 
the   cavalry   are   tougher   than   those   of    English 


62  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

regiments.  If  a  unit  from  each  army  were  placed 
side  by  side  in  a  position  in  which  there  was  no 
chance  of  feeding  horses  on  full  rations  of  forage, 
but  all  had  to  live  on  the  country  and  make  the 
best  of  it  for  a  time,  the  French  animals  would 
probably  come  out  better  of  the  two  from  the 
ordeal,  since  they  are  more  used  to  hardships  in 
time  of  peace.  The  British  trooper  is  taught  to 
treat  his  horse  as  he  would  a  baby,  while  the  French 
soldier,  inured  to  rigorous  discipline  himself,  has 
a  horse  that  shares  his  own  circumstances. 

The  cavalry  conscript  elects  to  serve  in  a  mounted 
unit,  for,  on  the  ist  of  October  on  which  a  man 
comes  up  for  his  training,  he  is  given  choice  between 
cavalry,  artillery  and  infantry  service,  as  far  as 
the  exigencies  of  the  service  will  permit.  Like  the 
infantry  recruit,  he  begins  his  service  by  drawing 
kit  and  clothing  and  fitting  the  latter  to  the  satis- 
faction of  his  superior  officers;  in  addition  to  the 
equivalent  of  the  kit  drawn  from  store  by  the 
infantryman,  however,  the  cavalry  conscript  must 
draw  stable  kit  and  cleaning  materials,  spurs  and 
all  that  goes  to  make  the  difference  between  the 
mounted  and  the  dismounted  soldier.  Unlike  mod- 
ern practice  in  the  British  cavalry,  the  way  with 
the  French  conscript  is  to  get  on  teaching  him  at 
once  as  much  as  possible;  riding  school,  foot  drill. 


CAVALRY  63 

gymnastic  exercises,  and  stable  work  are  all  crowded 
into  his  day,  for  there  are  but  two  years  available 
before  he  will  go  back  to  civilian  attire  and  ways. 
And  there  is  much  to  teach  him;  more,  really,  than 
two  years  can  be  made  to  serve  for.  It  may  be 
said  that,  except  in  the  case  of  men  who  were 
skilled  riders  before  they  came  up  for  training,  the 
French  cavalry  conscript  is  not  a  complete  soldier 
by  the  time  he  has  finished  his  two  years,  for  it  is 
impossible  that  he  should  be.  All  that  can  be  done 
to  make  him  efficient  is  done,  though,  and  the  dif- 
ference between  the  finished  article,  going  back  to 
civilian  avocations,  and  the  conscript  from  which 
he  is  formed,  is  little  short  of  marvellous.  Detrac- 
tors from  the  merits  of  a  conscript  system  overlook 
the  effect  on  the  conscript  as  regards  physique  and 
moral  stamina;  out  of  the  rough  schooling  men 
emerge  far  more  fitted  for  the  battle  of  life  than 
they  entered,  and  the  net  effect  of  military  training 
in  a  cavalry  regiment — two  years  of  it,  taken  as 
the  French  soldier  is  made  to  take  his  training — is 
in  nineteen  cases  out  of  twenty  all  to  the  good. 

Riding-school  is  a  serious  business;  when  a  man 
first  leads  his  horse  through  the  riding-school  en- 
trance and  mounts,  he  learns  what  a  perfect  brute — 
from  his  point  of  view — an  instructor  can  be,  and 
it  is  not  until  he  is  ncaring  the  end  of  his  period 


64  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

of  riding-school  instruction  that  he  learns  to  look 
on  the  instructor  as  not  a  bad  fellow,  a  bit  strict 
at  his  work,  but  responsible  for  the  turning  out  of 
some  of  the  finest  riders  in  the  world.  For  in 
horsemanship  the  French  soldier  is  no  whit  behind 
his  English  confrere,  and  it  is  only  in  recent  years 
that  the  British  Army  has  taken  up  the  circus  tricks 
which  for  many  years  have  been  practised  in  the 
French  Army  in  order  to  make  men  thoroughly 
familiar  with  their  mounts.  A  conscript  is  taught 
not  only  to  ride  a  saddled  horse,  but  also  to  vault 
on  to  the  back  of  a  cantering  horse,  to  make  his 
horse  lie  down,  and  various  other  tricks — they  are 
nothing  more  in  themselves — which  give  him  thor- 
ough confidence  in  himself  and  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  capabilities,  intelligence,  and  nature  of  his 
horse.  Recognising  the  wisdom  of  this  form  of 
teaching,  the  British  Army  has  of  late  adopted  it,  to 
the  betterment  of  cavalry  riding  as  a  whole. 

The  new  hi  de  trois  ans,  introduced  in  the  war 
ministry  of  M.  Viviani,  will  be  to  the  advantage  of 
the  French  cavalry,  when  it  has  had  chance  of  a 
fair  trial — it  had  hardly  become  a  definite  law 
before  the  outbreak  of  war  put  a  stop  to  peace 
training  and  peace  organisation.  But,  when  things 
become  normal  again,  it  is  certain  that  the  cavalry 
will   benefit   by   the    extension    of    the   period    of 


CAVALRY  6s 

service,  and  although  they  were  perfectly  capable 
of  taking  the  field  when  need  arose,  French  cavalry 
will  be  improved  in  quality  by  the  additional  train- 
ing. This  applies  not  so  much  to  the  main  points 
of  drill  and  discipline  as  to  little  things ;  veterinary 
tricks  and  ways,  capacity  for  individual  service, 
and  self-dependence  in  the  fullest  sense,  especially 
to  the  extent  demanded  of  the  man  who  goes  out 
on  patrol  work  and  scouting  duty,  are  not  to  be 
learned  as  thoroughly  as  could  be  wished  in  two 
years,  but  must  be  ingrained  by  experience  as  well 
as  by  tuition. 

Before  his  first  year  of  training  is  concluded  the 
cavalry  conscript  is  expected  to  have  learned  all 
that  the  riding-school  can  teach  him.  In  addition 
to  the  class  of  riding  which  may  be  termed  circus 
work,  and  is  taught  on  horses  with  handled  pads 
instead  of  saddles,  the  recruit  is  initiated  into  bend- 
ing lessons,  by  which  his  horse  is  rendered  flexuous 
and  easily  amenable  to  pressure  of  leg  and  rein. 
It  is  worthy  of  note,  by  the  way,  that  the  principle 
on  which  the  modem  training  of  horses  is  based 
is  due  to  a  Frenchman,  who  brought  to  England 
what  were  at  the  time  considered  revolutionary 
principles  with  regard  to  riding. 

The  method  by  which  the  French  conscript  is 
trained  at  riding  school  is  of  such  a  nature  that  it 


66  THE  FRENCH  ARMY     ^ 


trains  horse  and  man  at  the  same  time.  At  the 
beginning  of  training  with  saddles  the  ride  is 
formed  of  about  sixteen  men  who  walk,  trot,  and 
canter  their  mounts  along  sides  of  a  square  in  single 
file.  The  man  is  made  to  ride  his  horse  well  into 
the  corners  of  the  square  and  to  make  three  turns 
sharply,  and,  when  men  have  acquired  full  control 
of  their  horses  so  as  to  be  able  to  perform  this 
simple  movement  properly,  they  are  taken  on  to 
more  complex  matters.  While  strung  out  along  one 
side  of  the  square,  at  the  word  of  command  each 
man  turns  his  horse  at  a  direct  right  angle,  pro- 
ceeds across  the  square,  and,  turning  again  at  a 
right  angle  on  the  far  side,  the  ride  forms  single 
file  again  and  proceeds.  A  diagonal  movement  of 
the  same  nature  is  then  taught;  men  are  taught 
to  halt  their  horses  suddenly  and  rein  them  back 
a  length  or  two ;  they  are  taught  when  at  the  canter 
to  cause  their  horses  to  passage  sideways  across 
the  square,  and,  in  fact,  are  instructed  to  make 
every  movement  of  which  a  horse  is  capable.  At 
first,  as  may  be  assumed,  the  tuition  is  carried  out 
with  trained  horses,  but,  as  men  become  advanced 
in  the  art  and  practice  of  riding,  they  are  put  on 
to  younger  horses,  and  it  will  be  easily  understood 
that,  in  learning  himself  to  make  the  horse  execute 
the  movements,  the  cavalryman  trains  the  horse  to 
its  work  as  well  as  increasing  his  own  knowledge. 


^ 


CAVALRY  67 

In  the  matter  of  foot  drill  there  is  not  so  much 
to  learn  in  the  cavalry  as  in  the  infantry.  Cavalry 
foot  drill,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  practically  a 
replica  of  the  drill  to  which  troops  and  squadrons 
of  men  are  subjected  when  mounted.  The  prin- 
ciple governing  cavalry  foot  drill  in  practically  all 
armies  consists  in  assuming  that  a  man  shall  not  be 
called  on  to  execute  a  movement  which  he  cannot 
execute  on  horseback,  as,  otherwise,  confusion 
might  arise  in  the  course  of  mounted  drill.  It 
would  be  interesting,  for  instance,  if  cavalry  were 
taught  infantry  drill,  to  see  what  would  happen 
if  a  squadron  of  mounted  men  were  ordered  to 
form  fours  in  the  infantry  style. 

Actual  foot  movements  do  not  by  any  means 
comprise  the  total  of  drill  that  the  cavalry  con- 
script must  learn  on  foot  before  applying  it  to 
mounted  work.  The  use  of  the  sword  and  also  that 
of  the  lance  are  first  thoroughly  taught  to  squads 
of  dismounted  men,  and  a  recruit  must  be  fully 
conversant  with  sword  and  lance  exercise  before 
he  ventures  to  perform  either  offensive  or  defensive 
movements  with  either  of  these  weapons  on  horse- 
back. The  unskilled  man  waving  a  sword  about 
when  mounted  would  probably  do  more  damage  to 
his  horse's  eyes  and  ears  than  to  anything  else, 
and  the  man  with  the  lance,  if  unskilled,   would 


68  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

probably  find  himself  dismounting  involuntarily  if 
he  tried  to  use  the  lance  on  a  spirited  horse.  Thus 
men  are  taken  out,  dismounted,  in  squads;  each 
man  assumes  the  position  which  he  would  occupy 
on  horseback  with  feet  well  apart,  knees  bent  and 
toes  turned  to  the  front — an  exhausting  posture  to 
maintain  for  any  length  of  time.  In  this  attitude 
the  recruit  is  taught  such  movements  as  are 
requisite  to  full  control  of  sword  and  lance.  For 
final  training  in  the  use  of  these  weapons  men  are 
given  fencing  outfits  and  set  in  pairs  to  oppose  each 
other.  When  they  have  attained  to  proficiency, 
the  whole  business  is  repeated  on  horseback,  and 
by  that  time  their  training  for  actual  field  work  in 
the  ranks  is  practically  complete. 

The  part  of  his  work  that  the  cavalry  conscript 
likes  least  is  the  grooming  and  sweeping  up  and 
cleaning  of  saddlery  in  the  stables.  There  is  a 
morning  stable  hour  with  which  the  day  begins; 
there  are  about  two  hours  before  midday  which 
must  be  devoted  to  grooming,  cleaning  saddlery, 
sweeping  up,  etc.,  and  there  is  another  hour  or  so 
to  be  spent  at  stables  in  the  afternoon,  when  the 
"orders  of  the  day"  are  read  out  to  the  men  by 
the  sergeant-major  of  the  squadron  or  his  repre- 
sentative. 

As  is  the  case  in  the  infantry,  each  conscript,  on 


CAVALRY  69 

arriving  at  the  regiment  in  which  he  is  to  serve,  is 
allotted  to  the  charge  of  a  corporal,  who  instructs 
him  in  all  things  pertaining  to  his  work,  and  takes 
charge  of  him  on  corvees,  the  equivalent  to  the 
"fatigues"  of  the  British  Amiy.  Corvees  include 
the  carrying  of  forage  from  the  stores  to  stable, 
fetching  coal  for  the  cooks,  whitewashing  where 
and  when  necessary,  building  riding-school  jumps, 
and,  in  fact,  all  and  every  class  of  work  which 
men  are  unable  to  perform  individually  for  them- 
selves. Much  of  this  work  is  undergone  by  the 
men  sentenced  to  salle  de  police,  which  is  the 
equivalent  of  the  British  Army's  punishment  known 
as  "days  to  barracks,"  with  the  addition  that  the 
offenders  sleep  in  the  guard  room  at  night  instead 
of  in  the  barrack  room.  This  of  course  involves 
entire  confinement  to  barracks,  which  no  offender 
is  allowed  to  quit  unless  he  is  on  duty;  it  also  in- 
volves no  possibility  of  attendance  at  the  canteen 
at  any  time  of  the  day,  and,  further,  the  man  sen- 
tenced to  salle  de  police  devotes  practically  all  the 
spare  time  that  is  his  under  normal  circumstances 
to  some  form  of  corvee.  On  the  whole,  however, 
the  punishment  is  not  so  severe  as  it  appears,  for, 
with  the  exception  of  sleeping  in  the  guard  room 
at  night,  and  rising  exceptionally  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, a  man  undergoing  salle  de  police  is  not  de- 


70  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

barred  from  the  society  of  his  comrades,  and  there 
is  usually  some  good-natured  chum  willing  to  fetch 
canteen  produce,  and  thus  make  up  for  at  least 
one  of  the  deficiencies  involved. 

This  last,  however,  must  be  done  when  the  cor- 
poral is  not  looking,  or  else  both  men  are  likely 
to  get  into  trouble.  Strict  discipline  is  the  rule 
and  the  conscript  is  expected  to  take  his  punish- 
ment— when  he  incurs  it — as  part  of  his  training. 
It  must  be  added  as  a  mark  of  the  quality  of  the 
material  of  which  the  French  Army  is  composed 
that  punishments  and  rewards  alike  are  usually 
accepted  in  equally  good  part. 

The  corporal,  who  is  the  superior  officer  with 
whom  the  conscript  is  brought  most  frequently  in 
contact,  sleeps  in  the  same  room  as  his  squad ;  he 
is  thus  able  to  give  men  hints  with  regard  to  riding 
school  work;  he  trains  his  squad  at  elementary 
drill,  both  mounted  and  dismounted;  he  instructs 
men  in  the  way  in  which  clothing  should  be  folded 
for  placing  on  the  shelf,  and  the  way  in  which  to 
clean  kit  and  equipment.  In  the  matter  of  troop 
drill  the  conscript  is  taught  his  work  by  the  ser- 
geant of  the  peloton  or  troop,  and  the  sergeant 
in  turn  is  responsible  to  the  lieutenant  or  sub- 
lieutenant over  him.  He  is  also  responsible  to  the 
sergeant-major  of  the  squadron,  and  through  him 


CAVALRY  71 

to  the  senior  captain  of  the  squadron.  To  follow 
the  matter  through,  the  senior  captain  is  responsible 
to  the  Chef  d'Escadrons,  who  again  is  responsible 
to  the  commanding  officer  of  the  regiment.  Decen- 
tralisation of  command  has  been  an  important  fac- 
tor in  French  military  training  for  many  years,  and 
although  the  responsibilities  of  the  corporal  and 
sergeant  pass  through  so  many  grades  before  they 
reach  the  ultimate  head  of  affairs,  both  these  lower 
ranks  are  extremely  important  items  in  the  dis- 
cipline and  training  of  the  French  cavalry  regi- 
ments. 

There  is  one  system  pursued  both  in  the  cavalry 
and  in  the  artillery  of  the  French  Army  which  leads 
to  pleasant  expeditions  for  a  certain  number  of 
men  in  each  of  these  branches  of  the  service.  The 
system  referred  to  is  that  of  boarding  out  a  certain 
number  of  horses  away  from  regimental  control  for 
that  portion  of  the  year  which  the  regiment  spends 
in  barracks.  \\^hen  the  time  approaches  for  the 
regiment  to  go  on  manoeuvres,  a  party  usually 
made  up  of  a  sergeant,  possibly  a  corporal,  and 
two  or  three  troopers,  goes  round  to  the  farms 
where  these  horses  are  at  grass,  and  inspects  them 
with  a  view  to  reporting  on  their  condition  and 
fitness  for  use.  As  may  be  imagined,  the  men  se- 
lected for  these  expeditions  are  envied  their  appoint- 


72  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

ments,  for  it  is  a  pleasant  matter  to  get  away  from 
the  discipline  and  strict  routine  of  service  with  the 
regiment  for  a  time,  and,  if  the  sergeant  In  charge 
is  a  companionable  man,  the  whole  affair  becomes 
a  perfect  picnic  for  the  men  concerned.  On  expedi- 
tions of  this  kind  men  are  perfectly  certain  of 
receiving  full  hospitality  at  such  places  as  they 
may  visit,  and  altogether  the  trip  is  as  good  as  the 
furlough  which  the  conscript,  unlike  his  British 
confrere,  does  not  get,  save  in  exceptional  circum- 
stances. The  two  years  in  which  a  man  must 
become  fully  conversant  with  his  work  is  too  short 
a  period,  in  view  of  the  number  of  duties  he  has 
to  learn,  to  admit  of  holidays. 

Altogether,  the  life  of  the  cavalry  conscript  in 
barracks  is  not  by  any  means  an  unpleasant  busi- 
ness. A  comparatively  large  number  of  men,  when 
given  the  choice  of  the  arm  of  the  service  in  which 
to  serve,  request  to  be  sent  to  the  cavalry.  The 
majority  of  those  joining  cavalry  regiments  are 
used  to  horses  in  some  way — and  by  this  is  implied 
very  many  ways  indeed,  and  very  many  kinds  of 
horse.  French  cavalry  as  a  whole  is  built  up  out 
of  good  material;  the  spirit  of  the  men  is  good;  the 
reputation  of  the  French  cavalry  for  horse-master- 
ship is  as  wide  as  it  is  deserved,  and,  bearing  in 
mind  the  period  of  active  service  for  which  men 


CAVALRY  73 

are  required  to  serve,  it  may  safely  be  said  that 
there  is  no  better  body  of  cavalry  troops  in  the 
world  than  the  French.  This  remark,  however, 
cannot  be  reckoned  as  a  wise  one  if  the  speaker  is 
addressing  a  British  cavalryman,  who  always  re- 
gards himself  as  a  member  of  the  premier  squadron 
in  the  best  regiment  of  the  very  finest  cavalry  force 
existent.  But  then,  the  French  cavalryman  will  tell 
the  same  story. 


CHAPTER   VII 
ARTILLERY 

IN  the  matter  of  armament  and  the  quahty 
thereof,  French  artillery  is  second  to  none; 
but  in  the  matter  of  numbers  the  Field  Artillery 
might  have  been  stronger  when  considered  rela- 
tively with  the  total  strength  of  the  French  Army. 
If  the  conscript  electing  to  join  either  infantry  or 
cavalry  considers  himself  in  for  a  hard  time,  then 
it  would  be  difficult  to  say  what  are  the  anticipa- 
tions of  the  conscript  who  goes  to  service  with  the 
guns,  for  his  work  is  practically  twice  as  hard  as 
that  of  the  average  infantryman.  Still,  he  makes 
up  for  increase  of  work  by  a  relaxation  of  dis- 
cipline, and,  after  all,  the  conscript's  two  years 
comes  to  about  the  same  thing  in  the  end,  no  mat- 
ter what  branch  of  the  service  he  may  choose.  For, 
just  as  there  is  a  limit  to  a  man's  endurance  or 
efficiency,  so  there  is  a  limit  to  the  amount  of 
knowledge  that  a  man  can  absorb  in  a  given  period. 
The  infantry  conscript  absorbs  all  the  knowledge 

74 


ARTILLERY  75 

possible  in  the  allotted  time:  the  artillery  conscript 
can  do  no  more. 

It  may  be  said,  in  fact,  that  the  artillery  con- 
script has  a  better  time  of  it  than  his  fellows  in 
either  infantry  or  cavalry,  for  his  work  is  rendered 
more  interesting  than  theirs  by  reason  of  its  being 
more  varied.  The  artillery  driver,  certainly,  is  in 
much  the  same  position  as  the  cavalryman,  for  his 
life  is  made  up  of  horses  and  stables,  riding,  driv- 
ing, grooming,  and  care  for  the  fitness  and  clean- 
liness of  harness  and  saddlery.  He  has  a  very 
busy  life,  this  artillery  driver,  and  his  remarks,  on 
coming  in  on  a  wet  day  after  two  or  three  hours' 
parade  with  the  guns,  might  cause  a  little  consterna- 
tion in  what  is  known  as  polite  society,  for  two 
muddy  horses  with  their  saddlery  and  fittings,  all 
to  be  dried  and  cleaned  for  the  battery  officer's 
inspection  within  a  given  time,  are  not  conducive 
to  elegance  of  expression  or  to  restraint. 

But  compensation  comes  in  the  relaxation  of  the 
rigid  discipline  which  the  infantryman,  and  to  a 
certain  extent  the  cavalryman,  have  to  undergo. 
This  will  appear  more  clearly  when  one  under- 
stands that  infantrymen  and  cavalrymen  alike  need 
supervision  throughout  the  whole  of  their  day's 
work.  Their  tasks  are  mainly  of  drill  and  routine : 
made  work,  a  good  bit  of  it,  in  order  to  render 


^d  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

them  thoroughly  efficient  soldiers.  The  made  work 
of  the  artillery  driver  consists  in  rendering  him 
efficient  in  the  art  of  controlling  two  of  the  horses 
which  draw  the  gun,  under  all  possible  and  many 
impossible  conditions.  By  the  time  his  training  is 
completed,  he  has  learned  to  harness  up  and  turn 
out  quickly,  and  is  capable  of  obeying  without  hesi- 
tation any  word  of  command  the  battery  officer  may 
give  with  regard  to  the  evolutions  of  the  battery 
as  a  whole.  He  is  trained  in  the  matter  of  casual- 
ties; that  is  to  say,  he  is  taught  to  regard  one  of 
his  horses  as  suddenly  injured  or  dead,  and  knows 
exactly  what  to  do  to  make  the  best  of  the  loss,  in 
case  such  a  casualty  may  occur.  "Unlimber"  and 
"limber  up,"  as  words  of  command,  find  him 
equally  unmoved  and  equally  alert;  he  is,  at  his 
best,  a  confident,  self-reliant  man,  a  far  different 
being  from  the  raw  youth  who,  on  a  certain  first  of 
October,  came  to  be  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of 
artillery  driving. 

These  things  comprise  very  nearly  all  of  what 
may  be  termed  the  made  work  of  the  artillery 
driver,  the  work  that  is  arranged  with  a  special 
view  to  making  him  an  efficient  soldier  in  time  of 
war.  The  rest  of  his  work  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  the  well-being  of  himself  and  the  two  horses 
under  his  charge.    As  a  matter  of  course,  he  must 


ARTILLERY  ^y 

keep  himself  and  his  kit  smart  and  clean — as  smart- 
ness is  known  in  the  French  Army.  He  must  groom 
his  horses,  and  keep  their  equipment  in  good  order ; 
he  must  keep  the  stables  clean;  he  must  assist  the 
gunners  in  the  corvees  necessary  to  the  maintenance 
of  health,  good  order,  and  efficiency  in  the  battery. 
Bearing  in  mind  the  fact  that  this  one  man  is 
responsible  not  only  for  himself,  in  the  way  that 
an  infantryman  is,  but  is  also  responsible  for  his 
two  horses  and  all  their  outfit,  it  will  be  seen  that 
there  is  not  much  time  for  the  discipline  which,  in 
the  case  of  the  infantryman,  is  practically  indis- 
pensable to  the  thorough  control  of  the  man  and 
the  full  efficiency  of  the  regiment.  The  artillery 
driver  is  a  busy  man,  who  considers  himself,  by 
reason  of  the  amount  of  work  that  he  gets  through, 
a  far  more  capable  man  than  either  an  infantryman 
or  a  cavalryman;  in  the  driver's  estimation,  the 
only  class  of  man  who  comes  anywhere  near  him 
as  regards  efficiency  and  soldierly  qualities  is  the 
gunner,  and,  the  driver  will  say,  the  gunner  is  not 
quite  so  good  a  man  as  the  driver.  This  spirit, 
common  to  each  branch  of  the  French  Army, 
augurs  well  for  the  efficiency  and  fighting  value  of 
all  arms  of  the  service. 

Gunners  in  the   French  Army,  as  far  as  Field 
Artillery  is  concerned,  differ  from  English  gunners 


78  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

in  that  they  only  ride  on  the  limber  and  on  the 
gun  when  there  is  actual  need  that  they  should 
accompany  the  gun.  English  gunners  always  ride, 
but  in  the  French  Army  it  is  considered  better  to 
save  the  horses  by  reducing  the  weight  that  they 
have  to  draw  to  the  lowest  possible  amount.  On 
long  marches  the  gunners  turn  out  two  or  three 
hours  earlier  than  the  drivers,  and  march  like 
infantry  to  the  appointed  destination  for  the  day. 
Although  turning  out  later  with  horses  and  guns, 
the  drivers  usually  reach  camp  at  the  end  of  the 
day  quite  as  soon  as  the  gunners,  for  the  trot  is 
maintained  where  possible,  and,  with  a  light  load 
to  draw,  artillery  horses  are  able  to  get  over  ground 
quickly.  This  system  has  much  to  commend  it; 
it  hardens  the  gunners,  and  is  far  better  for  their 
general  health  than  sitting  on  a  gun  or  limber 
which  jolts,  springless,  along  a  country  road;  at 
the  same  time,  it  increases  the  mobility  of  the 
artillery,  and  renders  horses  more  fresh  and  fit  for 
their  work  in  case  of  several  days  in  succession,  de- 
voted to  marching  to  a  distant  destination.  The 
only  drawback  to  the  practice  consists  in  its  being 
useless  in  time  of  war,  when  the  gunners  must  at 
all  times  accompany  the  guns  and  be  ready  for 
instant  action. 

The  work  of  the  gunners  is  quite  as  hard  as  that 


ARTILLERY  79 

of  the  drivers  of  Field  Artillery,  and  quite  as  varied. 
Coming  to  the  battery  with  absolutely  no  knowl- 
edge of  the  ways  of  using  a  gun,  the  raw  conscript 
is  taught  the  work  of  half  a  dozen  men,  for,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  drivers,  each  man  has  to  be  able  to 
replace  casualties  in  the  ranks.  The  actual  drill 
to  which  a  gunner  is  subjected  is  a  complicated 
business;  there  is  a  good  deal  of  hopping  and 
jumping  about  and  aside,  for  each  man  must  learn 
to  perform  his  part  in  loading,  sighting,  and  firing 
his  gun,  and  at  the  same  time  each  man  must 
keep  out  of  the  way  of  the  rest.  A  gun  crew 
amounts  to  a  dozen  or  so  of  men:  there  are  the 
men  concerned  in  the  getting  out  of  ammunition, 
others  busied  over  the  actual  loading,  and  yet 
others  engaged  in  sighting  the  gun  and  firing  at 
the  word  of  command;  each  of  these  men  must  be 
taught  the  duties  of  all  the  rest,  for,  when  a  battery 
is  actually  in  action,  casualties  must  be  anticipated, 
and  the  men  who  are  loading  must  be  prepared  to 
get  out  ammunition  if  required,  must  be  able  to 
set  the  time  fuse  of  a  shell  for  a  given  range,  able 
to  load,  sight,  and  fire  the  gun.  Thus  one  man  has 
to  learn  the  various  tasks  which  a  dozen  perform, 
though  to  each  is  allotted  a  definite  place,  and  each 
is  specially  trained  for  the  performance  of  a  definite 
part. 


8o  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

Naturally,  this  training  fully  occupies  all  the 
two  years  of  the  gunner  conscript's  service,  and 
there  is  little  time  to  spare.  The  fuss  and  fret  of 
discipline  is  correspondingly  reduced;  when  a  man 
is  thoroughly  busy,  and  interested  in  his  work  as 
any  man  must  be  over  a  gun,  if  he  is  in  the  least 
mechanically  inclined,  he  needs  no  undue  pressure 
to  keep  him  up  to  his  work;  the  gunner,  if  he  has 
any  sense  of  the  responsibility  and  nature  of  his 
work,  gets  sufficiently  interested  in  it,  and  suffi- 
ciently keen  over  the  points  that  he  has  to  master, 
to  render  him  independent  of  more  than  actual 
tuition.  The  pleasure  that  comes  to  the  sportsman 
over  a  remarkably  successful  shot,  or  to  the 
cricketer  over  a  good  boundary  hit,  is  akin  to  the 
feeling  experienced  by  the  gunner  as  he  learns  part 
after  part  of  his  gun,  and  finds  himself  well  on  the 
way  to  gaining  complete  control  over  the  tremen- 
dous power  that  the  gun  represents. 

But  this  comes  late  in  the  training  period,  and 
is  not  attained  easily.  There  is  so  much  to  learn; 
the  way  in  which  a  shell  is  timed,  for  instance,  is  a 
complex  piece  of  work  that  must  be  understood, 
to  a  certain  extent,  by  the  gunner  who  has  to  do 
the  timing;  that  is  to  say,  the  mechanism  of  the 
shell,  and  the  nature  of  the  timing  apparatus,  have 
to  be  taught  the  man  as  well  as  the  mere  action  of 


ARTILLERY  8i 

turning  the  ring  to  the  required  point  and  "setting 
the  fuse."  Traversing  and  sighting  the  gun,  eleva- 
tion and  depression,  are  movements  that  explain 
themselves  as  they  are  taught;  sighting  to  a  given 
range  seems  easy,  but  is  not  so  easy  in  practice, 
for  the  sighting  of  a  gun  has  to  be  done  swiftly  and 
accurately — there  must  be  no  mistake  in  the  range, 
for  a  shell  costs  more  money  than  the  total  pay  of 
the  conscript  during  his  two  years  of  service,  and 
to  throw  those  costly  projectiles  to  points  at  which 
they  explode  without  effect  is  a  silly  business. 

To  each  man  his  part  in  the  whole,  and  absolute 
efficiency  in  the  part — that  is  the  ideal  to  which 
the  training  of  the  gunner  is  directed;  the  quality 
of  the  French  field  artillery  in  action  in  this,  their 
latest  real  experience  of  war,  attests  how  well  the 
ideal  has  been  realised.  Outnumbered  by  their 
opponents  in  batteries  and  regiments,  often  con- 
fronted with  guns  of  far  heavier  calibre  than  their 
own,  they  have  given  good  account  of  themselves, 
and  shown  that  the  crews  of  the  75-millimetre  gun 
are  capable  of  holding  their  own  as  far  as  lies  within 
the  bounds  of  human  possibility. 

With  regard  to  the  custom  of  sending  forward 
gunners  on  foot,  this  practice  is  also  followed  in  the 
case  of  reserve  drivers,  or  drivers  who  are  not 
needed  for  the  actual  transport  of  the  guns  and 


82  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

limbers  on  the  march.  They  are  formed  up  in  rear 
of  the  gunners,  and  are  marched  off  on  foot  with 
the  latter  instead  of  adding  to  the  weight  that  the 
horses  have  to  pull,  leaving  only  such  officers  and 
men  as  are  actually  necessary  to  travel  >vith  the 
guns. 

The  artillery  officer's  training  course  is  more 
severe  than  that  undergone  by  any  other  branch 
of  the  service,  as,  in  view  of  the  complicated  and 
responsible  nature  of  his  duties,  it  needs  to  be.  An 
artillery  officer,  gaining  his  commission  after  the 
fashion  of  a  British  officer  who  elects  to  join  the 
Army  by  way  of  Sandhurst  or  Woolwich,  goes  first 
to  the  £cole  Polytechnique,  the  highest  engineering 
school  of  France ;  after  completing  the  course  here, 
the  officer  of  artillery  is  sent  on  to  the  artillery 
school  at  Fontainebleau,  where  a  year  is  spent  in 
further  training,  and  then  the  youngster  is  con- 
sidered competent  to  take  his  place  as  lieutenant 
in  an  artillery  battery.  The  percentage  of  artillery 
officers  gaining  their  commissions  from  the  ranks 
is  smaller  than  that  of  other  branches  of  the  service, 
and  it  is  seldom  that  such  officers  reach  higher  than 
the  rank  of  captain,  for,  in  order  to  learn  all  that 
is  required  of  the  higher  ranks  of  commissioned 
officer  in  the  artillery,  an  officer  needs  to  start 
young,  and  a  course  at  the  ;ficole  Polytechnique  is 


ARTILLERY  85 

almost  an  essential.  By  the  time  a  man  has 
worked  his  way  through  the  various  grades  of  non- 
commissioned officer  and  is  thus  eligible  for  such 
a  course,  he  is  usually  too  old  to  take  kindly  to 
school  work. 

Altogether,  artillery  service  is  not  a  light  business 
in  the  French  Army — it  is  not  in  any  army,  for  that 
matter.  Both  gunners  and  drivers  must  take  them- 
selves seriously,  and  officers  of  the  artillery  must 
take  themselves  most  seriously  of  all,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  engineer  officers.  The  modern 
rifle  is  a  complicated  weapon  when  compared  with 
the  musket  of  a  hundred  years  ago;  but  in  com- 
parison with  the  rifle,  the  big  gun  of  the  Army  of 
to-day  has  advanced  in  construction  and  power 
to  an  enormously  greater  extent.  The  character 
of  the  projectile  has  changed  altogether  from  the 
old-fashioned  round  shot  to  a  missile  which  is  in 
itself  a  gun,  carrying  its  own  exploding  charge  and 
small  projectiles  within  itself.  The  range  of  the 
modern  gun  is  limited  only  by  the  necessity  to  make 
the  gun  mobile  in  the  field,  and  by  the  range  of. 
human  sight  or  power  to  judge  the  position  of  the 
target.  The  gunners  of  to-day,  and  the  officers 
who  command  them,  must  be  skilled  workmen, 
possessed  of  no  little  mechanical  ability  in  addition 
to  their  military  qualities.     They  must  be  not  only 


84  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

soldiers,  but  artificers,  mechanics,  engineers,  mathe- 
maticians— skilled  men  in  every  way.  The  effi- 
ciency of  the  French  artillery  to-day  is  largely  due 
to  the  French  turn  of  mind,  which  is  eminently 
suited  to  the  solving  of  those  mathematical  prob- 
lems with  which  the  work  of  those  who  control  the 
big  guns  abounds. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
IN  CAMP  AND  ON  THE  MARCH 

MANOEUVRES  fall  at  the  end  of  the  military 
year  in  the  French  Army,  being  so  arranged 
in  order  that  the  second-year  conscripts  shall  pass 
out  from  the  Army  and  back  to  their  ordinary 
civilian  avocations  as  soon  as  they  return  to 
barracks  and  have  time  to  hand  in  their  equip- 
ment and  arms.  For  the  majority  of  these  men, 
it  is  two  years  since  they  have  had  time  to  see  their 
friends,  save  for  a  stray  day  or  two  of  leave  here 
and  there  for  the  man  whose  people  live  within 
a  short  distance  of  the  training-place  to  which  he 
has  been  drafted,  or  a  stray  visitor  who  brings 
news  from  home  to  one  or  other  at  infrequent 
intervals.  Thus  manoeuvres  mean  a  good  deal  to 
the  conscript;  even  the  first-year  men  catch  the 
infection  from  their  fellows  with  regard  to  the 
approaching  time  for  going  away,  and  there  is  as 
well  the  sense  for  these  juniors  that,  when  they 
return  to  barracks,  they  will  no  longer  be  first-year 
men,   but   able   to   advise   and   instruct   such   raw 


86  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

recruits  as  they  themselves  were  just  a  year  ago. 
Added  to  this,  again,  is  the  sense  of  freedom  that 
comes  from  knowing  of  the  days  of  marching, 
billeting,  and  sight  of  fresh  places  and  people  from 
day  to  day,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  the  change  from 
barrack  life  with  its  perpetual  round  of  work  to  the 
constantly  varying  scenes  of  manoeuvres  is  one 
which  is  anticipated  with  pleasure  by  all. 

About  a  week,  or  perhaps  more,  before  the  time 
has  come  for  the  army  corps  concerned — or  the 
cavalry  or  other  divisions  concerned — to  set  out  on 
its  march  to  the  manoeuvre  area,  the  cavalry  and 
artillery  send  out  their  patrols  to  gather  up  the 
horses  which  have  been  boarded  out  at  farms  for 
the  summer,  and  the  men  of  these  patrols  are 
almost  invariably  billeted  on  the  inhabitants  of 
the  districts  round  which  they  have  to  ride  on  their 
errand.  It  is  a  pleasant  task,  this;  the  year  is  at 
its  best,  and  summer  just  so  far  advanced  that  the 
early  rising,  the  riding  through  the  day,  and  the 
evening  tasks  are  alike  easy.  The  weather  is  good, 
the  life  is  not  too  hard,  and  the  party  too  small  to 
admit  of  strict  discipline  being  maintained;  the 
men  know  that  their  picnic-time  is  due  to  their  hav- 
ing been  specially  chosen  as  reliable  for  such  work, 
and  consequently  they  do  not  abuse  their  freedom. 

And  the  horses  come  in  from  grass  to  train  for 


IN  CAMP  AND  ON  THE  MARCH         87 

what  a  horse  can  never  understand,  though  it  is  in 
the  knowledge  of  all  that  a  horse  comes  to  know 
his  place  in  the  ranks  of  the  cavalry  or  in  the  traces 
of  the  gun  team,  and  would  gladly  go  back  to  that 
place  after  he  has  been  cast  out  from  the  service  to 
drudgery  between  the  two  shafts  of  a  cart  or  cab. 
Perhaps  the  horses  have  their  own  thoughts  about 
going  on  manoeuvres,  and  the  change  from  stable 
life — such  of  them  as  have  been  kept  in  stables 
while  the  troops  are  in  barracks — to  the  open  air 
existence  which  is  theirs  in  camp. 

It  is  a  great  day  for  the  conscript  when  the  regi- 
ment marches  out  from  barracks.  Farewell  for  a 
time,  and  in  the  case  of  the  second-year  men  fare- 
well for  good,  to  the  barrack  routine.  They  leave 
in  barracks  the  things  they  will  not  require  on  field 
service,  the  materials  for  what  the  British  soldier 
knows  as  "spit  and  polish  soldiering,"  and  the  con- 
script starts  out  with  his  field  kit  and  equipment, 
prepared  to  have  a  good  time. 

The  infantry  swing  out  through  the  barrack 
gates,  a  long  column  of  marching  men;  they  talk 
among  themselves  of  what  they  will  do  when 
manoeuvres  are  over;  the  second-year  men  talk  of 
going  away,  back  to  their  homes,  and  of  turning 
their  backs  on  military  service;  they  have  done 
the  duty  their  country  asked  of  them,  and  now  are 


88  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

at  liberty  to  think  of  a  good  time — almost  a  holiday, 
in  spite  of  the  hard  work  and  marching  involved, 
with  which  they  will  end  their  service — to  last 
them  through  the  coming  weeks,  after  which  they 
will  resume  civilian  attire  and  work.  It  has  been  a 
hard  business,  this  conscript  period,  but  France 
asked  it,  and  ma  foi,  but  we  are  men  now!  The 
stern  strictness  of  the  instructors,  the  unending 
discipline  imposed  by  sergeants  and  corporals,  the 
everlasting  watchfulness  of  the  adjutant  over  but- 
tons and  boots  and  the  correct  method  of  saluting — 
proper  perspective,  rapidly  growing  in  the  mind 
of  the  man  nearing  the  end  of  his  second  year, 
assures  him  that  these  things  are  needs  of  a  good 
army.  And  then,  he  is  going  out  on  manoeuvres, 
among  the  apple  orchards  or  the  hill  villages;  he 
is  going  to  show  the  country  what  its  soldiers  are 
like,  and  almost,  but  not  quite,  he  regrets  that  the 
end  of  his  period  of  military  service  is  nearly  in 
sight.  The  time  to  which  he  looks  forward  colours 
his  view  of  all  things;  the  barracks  are  behind,  and 
before  him  is  the  open  road — that  long,  straight 
road  which,  in  so  many  districts  of  France,  goes  on 
and  on  across  bare  plains,  to  human  sight  a  thread 
laid  right  across  the  fabric  of  the  world  without 
bend  or  divergence.  A  road  of  white  dust  which, 
as  soon  as  the  barracks  are  left  behind,  rises  from 


IN  CAMP  AND  ON  THE  MARCH         89 

the  many  footsteps  of  the  marching  men  and  envel- 
ops the  column.  The  band  in  front  goes  free  of 
the  dust,  and  well  it  is  that  the  throats  of  the  bands- 
men are  not  choked  and  dried  with  the  insidious 
stuff,  for  one  marches  better,  far  better,  with  the 
music. 

Somebody  starts  a  song,  for  the  regiment  is 
marching  at  ease.  A  squad  takes  it  up,  and  it 
spreads  through  the  company — the  company  in 
rear  has  already  started  its  own  song,  a  different 
one.  Interminably  that  song  goes  on,  and  the 
miles  slip  behind.  At  the  end  of  every  hour  the 
column  halts,  and  its  men  fall  out  for  five  minutes' 
rest — a  good  custom,  this,  for  one  can  get  rid  of 
some  of  the  dust,  and  often  get  a  drink  of  water 
from  a  wayside  spring — or  Jean,  who  always  gets 
enough  money  from  home  to  satisfy  the  desires  of 
his  heart,  has  brought  a  bottle.  It  would  be  in  the 
last  degree  injudicious  to  incur  the  accusation  of 
faire  Suisse  on  this  first  day  of  the  march,  and  Jean 
has  long  since  learned  wisdom  over  such  points  of 
etiquette.  Jean  wants  to  keep  the  bottle  till  the 
next  halt,  but  it  is  pointed  out  to  him  that  the 
morning  is  already  warm,  and  to  carry  a  bottle  for 
another  hour  when  one  might  empty  it — with 
assistance — and  be  saved  the  labour  of  transport- 
ing it  further,  is  very  bad  judgment.     Jean  needs 


90  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

little  persuasion — but  it  is  time  to  fall  in  and 
resume  the  march :  the  bottle  gets  emptied  while 
the  column  is  marching,  and  Jean  is  voted  un  brave 
gargon — as  undoubtedly  he  is,  in  other  things  be- 
side this. 

Shrouded  in  dust  the  column  goes  on.  The  grey- 
headed colonel  is  at  the  head,  then  comes  the  band, 
and  then  the  men  of  the  regiment  follow,  at  ease, 
singing,  smoking,  chatting  together.  They  pass 
through  a  village  street  in  which  is  a  simple 
monument  to  the  men  who  fell  in  '70,  and  the 
colonel  pulls  his  men  up  to  attention  while  they 
pass  through  the  street.  Quietly,  and  with  some- 
thing ominous  in  the  manner  of  their  march, 
the  men  pass  out  to  the  open  road  again,  where 
"at  ease"  is  the  order  once  more.  But,  when  they 
march  steadily  at  attention,  these  French  infantry- 
men seem  the  embodiment  of  military  strength  and 
efficiency.  The  Army  has  taken  them  and  made 
of  them  what  it  meant  to  make,  and,  Breton  lad  or 
Paris  gamin,  they  are  stamped  with  the  mark  of 
the  Army — they  are  soldiers  of  the  Republic, 
marching  items  which,  apart  from  their  personal 
characteristics,  mean  each  a  rifle  and  a  bayonet  for 
France  when  the  hour  shall  strike.  Over  suc- 
cessive horizons  they  go,  stopping  every  hour  for 
their  five  minutes ;  they  grow  heedless  of  the  band 


IN  CAMP  AND  ON  THE  MARCH         91 

at  the  head  of  the  column,  and  scarcely  know 
whether  it  is  playing  or  no;  one  or  two  fall  out, 
perhaps,  for  the  first  days  of  the  march  throw  out 
from  the  ranks  all  the  unfit;  there  is  a  doctor  at 
hand  to  see  to  those  who  fall  out,  and  the  column 
swings  on.  Some  time,  after  what  seems  to  the 
men  very  many  hours,  the  band  strikes  up  definitely 
and  with  an  indefinable  new  note — and  the  men 
know  they  are  marching  into  camp.  Food  and 
sleep  are  not  far  ahead;  the  column  stiffens  at  the 
call  from  the  grey-haired  colonel,  and  swings  on  to 
the  camping-ground  apparently  as  fresh  as  when 
the  men  passed  out  from  the  barrack  gate.  It  is  a 
part  of  their  pride  that  they  should  come  in  well, 
should  end  their  march  like  soldiers  and  men,  not 
like  weaklings. 

The  cavalry  also  go  out  from  the  barracks  with 
anticipations  of  good  times  ahead.  Unlike  the  in- 
fantry, they  have  to  keep  formation  when  marching 
at  ease  as  when  marching  at  attention,  for  you 
cannot  get  a  horse  to  rein  back  into  the  rank  be- 
hind you  or  come  up  to  the  rank  in  front  of  you 
as  easily  as  you  yourself  can  drop  back  or  go  up, 
and,  moreover,  you  cannot  regain  your  place  in 
the  ranks  at  the  call  of  "attention"  as  an  infantry- 
man can.  But  there  are  compensations.  The 
"fours"  of  men  divide  into  twos,  of  which  each 


92  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

takes  one  side  of  the  road ;  there  is  room  in  between 
the  two  inner  men  for  the  clouds  of  dust  to  roll 
about,  and,  although  some  of  the  stuff  comes  up, 
especially  as  regards  the  rear  of  the  squadron,  one 
is  not  so  much  down  in  it  as  the  soldier  on  foot. 
One  sees  the  country,  too;  the  infantryman,  keep- 
ing his  place  in  his  company,  is  just  one  of  a  crowd, 
and,  in  marching  along  and  getting  very  tired — so 
the  cavalryman  says — he  has  no  chance  of  looking 
about  him  and  seeing  what  the  country  that  he  is 
marching  through  is  like.  One's  horse  does  all  the 
work,  in  the  cavalry  march,  and  one  is  merely  a 
spectator,  enjoying  the  fine  day  and  the  new 
scenery.  It  is  good  to  be  in  the  cavalry,  and  who 
would  be  an  infantryman,  when  manoeuvres  start? 
Patrol  duty,  for  instance,  and  the  isolated  tasks 
that  take  patrols  of  three  and  four  men  to  farm- 
houses where  the  milk  is  good  and  one  is  invited — 
yes,  invited! — to  pick  fruit  from  the  trees — what 
infantryman  knows  anything  of  joys  like  these? 
Assuredly  it  is  a  good  thing  that  one  chose  to 
serve  in  the  cavalry. 

Supposing  it  is  the  first  time  one  has  gone  out  on 
manoeuvres,  there  are  all  sorts  of  pleasant  specula- 
tions in  which  one  can  indulge.  Guillaumette,  the 
surly  fellow,  who  when  in  barracks  always  occupies 
the  next  bed  and  snores  so  atrociously — he  who  is 


IN  CAMP  AND  ON  THE  MARCH         93 

not  always  perfectly  innocent  of  faire  Suisse, 
though  he  has  the  luck  of  a  pig,  and  never  gets 
caught  at  any  of  his  mean  tricks — Guillaumette  will 
be  going  away  when  one  returns  to  barracks  at  the 
end  of  the  manoeuvres,  and  who  shall  say  what 
pleasant  kind  of  a  comrade  may  not  come  from 
among  the  new  recruits  to  take  his  place?  Jacques, 
for  instance,  who  belongs  to  the  third  peloton  has  a 
first-year  man  in  the  next  bed  to  him,  one  who  is 
the  son  of  a  deputy,  and  has  always  plenty  of 
money.  When  the  deputy's  son  was  for  guard  and 
was  warned  for  duty  so  late  that  he  could  not 
possibly  get  ready  in  time,  Jacques  lent  him  kit  and 
helped  him  to  turn  out,  with  the  result  that  Jacques 
had  five  francs — five  francs,  think  of  it! — with 
which  to  go  to  the  canteen.  And,  soon  after  one 
has  got  back  off  manoeuvres,  the  new  recruits  will 
be  coming  in ;  one  will  be  a  second-year  man,  then, 
with  perhaps  a  deputy's  son  to  sleep  in  the  next 
bed  and  dispense  five  francs  at  a  time  to  one  who 
knows  all  the  little  ways  of  soldiering  and  can  be 
of  use.  The  possibilities,  both  of  the  manoeuvres 
themselves  and  of  what  comes  after,  are  endless, 
and  speculation  on  them  is  a  pleasant  business. 
Surly  old  Sergeant  Lemaire,  too,  is  almost  sure  to 
get  promotion  this  year,  and  the  peloton  will  get 
another  sergeant  to  take  charge  of  it — certainly  not 


94  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

one  with  a  worse  temper,  for  that  would  be  im- 
possible. 

And  the  long  road  slips  behind,  while  the 
troopers  conjecture  with  regard  to  their  future, 
talk  together  of  horses  bad  and  good,  sergeants  and 
corporals  bad  and  good,  comrades  also  bad  and 
good ;  they  smoke  as  they  ride,  and  talk  yet  more  of 
horses,  for  any  army  of  the  world  the  cavalry- 
men never  tire  of  talking  of  horses  and  their  own 
riding  abilities,  while  in  the  French  Army  boasting 
of  one's  own  horsemanship,  and  all  the  rest  of  one's 
own  good  qualities,  is  even  more  common  than  it 
is  among  English  soldiers.  Not  that  the  boasting 
among  either  is  carried  to  a  nauseous  extent,  but 
the  soldier  is  so  subject  to  discipline,  so  used  to 
doing  good  work  with  only  the  official  recognition 
by  way  of  return,  that,  knowing  the  work  is  good, 
he  talks  about  it  himself  since  nobody  is  there  to 
do  the  talking  for  him — and  this  is  especially  true 
of  the  cavalry. 

Some  time  ago  Conan  Doyle  created  in  "Briga- 
dier Gerard"  an  excellent  picture  of  a  French 
cavalry  officer  of  the  old  type,  and  to  some  extent 
the  picture  of  Gerard — the  most  human  and 
realistic  figure  Conan  Doyle  has  ever  penned,  by 
the  way — still  holds  good  as  regards  both  officers 
and  men.     One  may  find  in  both  officers  and  men 


IN  CAMP  AND  ON  THE  MARCH  95 

of  the  French  cavalry  to-day  much  of  the  absolute 
disregard  of  risks,  rather  than  bravery  as  that  is 
understood  among  the  English,  which  character- 
ises the  brigadier.  There  is,  too,  much  of  Gerard's 
vanity  in  modern  French  cavalry  officers  and  men, 
much  of  his  susceptibility  to  influence,  and  all  of 
his  absolute  loyalty  to  a  superior.  The  French 
cavalryman  will  tell  his  comrades  how  he  dislikes 
his  squadron  officer,  but  he  will  follow  that  squad- 
ron officer  anywhere  and  into  any  danger — his  loy- 
alty is  sufficient  for  any  test  that  may  be  imposed  on 
him.  Like  Gerard,  he  will  brag  of  the  things  he  has 
done,  will  devote  much  time  to  explaining  exactly 
how  he  did  them  and  how  no  other  man  could  have 
done  them  just  as  well,  until  a  British  cavalryman, 
if  he  were  listening,  would  tell  the  speaker  to  pass 
the  salt  and  hire  a  trumpeter  to  blow  for  him.  But, 
though  the  French  cavalryman  is  true  to  the 
Gerard  picture  in  that  he  boasts  inordinately,  it 
will  be  found,  when  one  has  got  to  close  acquaint- 
ance with  him,  that  he  does  not  boast  without 
reason.  He  has  done  a  good  thing — why  not  talk 
a-bout  it,  for  if  he  does  not  nobody  else  will?  The 
British  attitude  toward  a  boaster  is  one  of  con- 
tempt, since  the  man  who  boasts  generally  does  lit- 
tle, and  exaggerates  that  little  out  of  recognition. 
But  the  French  cavalryman  boasts — and  acts  too; 


96  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

like  the  Englishman,  he  does  his  work,  and,  unlike 
the  Englishman,  he  talks  about  it.  But  it  must 
always  be  remembered  that  he  acts  as  well  as  talks. 

The  picture  of  Gerard,  however,  is  not  a  faithful 
portrait  of  the  French  cavalry  officer  of  to-day,  for 
the  modern  French  officer  takes  his  work  far  more 
seriously  than  Gerard  took  his,  and  understands 
it  more  fully.  For  forty  years  or  more  French 
officers,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  nation, 
have  known  that  there  would  come  a  life  and  death 
struggle  with  Germany;  they  have  set  themselves 
to  the  task  of  mastering  the  difficulties  attendant 
on  the  crushing  of  the  invaders  and  the  avenging 
of  Sedan — no  matter  to  what  arm  of  the  service 
the  French  officer  may  belong,  he  is  first  a  soldier, 
and  after  that  a  man.  Gerard,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  man  first  and  officer  afterwards.  The  differ- 
ence has  been  brought  about  by  the  training  which 
the  Army  of  the  Third  Republic  imposes  on  its 
officers,  and  since  that  Army  is  a  conscript  force, 
the  difference  is  of  itself  a  necessity. 

And  it  should  always  be  borne  in  mind,  especially 
by  those  who  deplore  the  training  of  the  citizens  of 
France  into  so  huge  an  army,  that  the  step  has 
been  vital  to  the  life  of  the  nation.  With  a  far 
smaller  population  than  Germany,  France  has 
been  compelled,  as  a  matter  of  self-preservation. 


IN  CAMP  AND  ON  THE  MARCH         97 

to  keep  pace  with  Germany  in  the  means  adopted 
with  regard  to  military  training,  has  had  to  train 
and  arm  man  for  man,  produce  gun  for  gun — and 
when  the  hour  of  trial  came  it  was  found  that  the 
preparation  had  been  none  too  great — there  was 
not  one  trained  man  but  was  needed  to  cope  with 
the  national  enemy,  with  Prussian  militarism  and 
Prussian  greed  of  conquest.  The  conscript  Army 
of  the  Third  Republic,  unlike  that  of  its  eastern 
neighbour  and  unlike  the  huge  levies  that  Napoleon 
the  First  raised,  has  been  intended  as  a  means  of 
defence  only;  the  worst  enemy  of  the  Republic  can- 
not accuse  it  of  having  maintained  all  its  effective 
citizens  as  soldiers  with  a  view  to  aggression  in  any 
direction.  The  Army  is,  because  it  must  be  for 
the  safety  of  the  nation,  not  because  the  nation  de- 
sires territory  or  conquest. 

And  all  this  time  the  squadrons  are  marching 
along  the  straight  roads  that  led  over  far  horizons 
and  to  things  unguessed,  unseen  by  the  first-year 
men. 

They  stop,  at  intervals  along  their  marching  line, 
to  water  their  horses,  loosen  girths,  and  stretch 
themselves;  they  walk  about  the  roads  and  look  at 
each  other's  mounts;  they  share  packets  of  ciga- 
rettes— those  cigarettes  made  of  black  French  to- 
bacco that  wither  the  back  of  the  throat  when  first 


98  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

one  inhales  smoke  from  them.  The  lieutenant  or 
sub-lieutenant  comes  round  the  troop  to  inspect  the 
horses  and  see  that  all  are  fit,  and  the  sergeant 
comes  round  too,  probably  to  point  out  to  the  lieu- 
tenant some  loose  shoe  or  rubbing  girth  that  the  less 
experienced  eye  of  the  commissioned  youngster  has 
failed  to  detect.  Then  girths  are  tightened,  the  men 
mount  again,  and  go  on,  dividing  the  road  between 
them  as  before. 

As  camp  draws  near,  the  line  of  men  grows  silent, 
or  at  least  more  silent  than  at  the  setting  out,  and 
the  horses  take  their  work  steadily  rather  than 
eagerly,  for  this  is  their  first  day  out,  and  they  are 
not  yet  hardened  to  long  marches. 

Then  camp.  The  putting  down  of  the  lines, 
grooming,  blanketing  up  for  the  night,  feeding — 
one  cast  a  glance  over  toward  where  the  infantry 
have  come  in  and  got  to  their  own  meals,  for  this  is 
the  time  when  a  cavalryman  may  have  doubts  as 
to  whether  it  would  not  have  been  better,  after  all, 
to  have  joined  the  infantry.  Unworthy  thoughts, 
these — is  there  anything  in  the  world  like  a 
cavalryman,  for  real  soldierly  merit? 

This  business  of  believing  one's  own  branch  of 
the  service  to  be  infinitely  superior  to  any  other  is 
carried  into  the  different  branches  of  the  same  arm, 
as  well  as  existing  between  the  three  arms  as  a 


IN  CAMP  AND  ON  THE  MARCH         99 

whole.  The  cavalryman  knows  that  service  in  the 
cavalry  is  infinitely  to  be  preferred  to  service  in 
infantry  or  artillery,  but  further,  if  he  is  a  Dragoon, 
he  knows  that  neither  Cuirassier  nor  Chasseur  nor 
Hussar  is  nearly  as  good  as  himself,  and  the 
Cuirassier,  the  Chasseur,  and  the  Hussar  have 
equally  strong  beliefs  about  the  unquestionable 
superiority  of  their  own  branches  of  the  cavalry. 
Each  branch,  in  the  opinion  of  its  members,  can 
produce  the  best  riders,  the  best  shots,  the  best 
all-round  soldiers,  and  the  best  officers.  It  is  a 
harmless  belief,  maintained  quite  impersonally. 

Evening  stables  finished,  the  night  guards  are 
warned  for  their  duty,  the  men  settle  down  to  the 
chief  meal  of  the  day,  and  later  they  sleep,  the 
sound,  healthy  sleep  induced  by  a  long  day  in  the 
open  air.  They  waken  or  are  wakened  early  in  the 
morning,  and  again  they  saddle  up  and  go  on,  for 
often  the  manoeuvre  area  is  many  miles  from  the 
barracks,  and  days  may  be  devoted  to  straight- 
forward marching  before  the  mimic  warfare  begins. 

One  comes  back  to  the  guns,  the  long,  murderous 
tubes  that  trail,  each  behind  six  horses,  just  above 
the  dust  of  the  roads.  The  drivers  are  there  and 
the  battery  officers,  but  the  seats  on  the  guns  are 
empty,  for  the  most  part,  for  the  gunners  have 
marched  out  from  camp  very  early  in  the  morning. 


100  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

The  drivers  are  at  a  disadvantage,  compared  with 
the  men  of  cavalry  or  infantry — and  even  com- 
pared with  their  own  gunners;  for  if  a  cavalryman 
has  to  keep  his  place  in  the  ranks  when  mounted, 
then  the  gunner  is  absolutely  a  fixture  in  the  battery. 
There  can  be  no  dropping  back  to  talk  to  a 
comrade,  whatever  the  pretext  may  be,  for  no  man 
could  take  back  with  him  the  horse  he  is  riding 
and  the  one  he  is  leading,  when  both  are  in  the 
gun  team.  The  driver  rides  sombrely  alone;  the 
lead  driver  keeps  his  interval  from  the  gun  ahead, 
the  centre  driver  looks  to  it  that  his  lead  horse  does 
its  share  of  work  on  the  hills,  and  the  wheel  driver 
takes  special  care  of  the  direction  of  his  team  when 
an  infrequent  corner  has  to  be  turned,  for  on  him 
depends  the  track  the  wheels  will  make,  and  where 
they  will  run  with  relation  to  the  middle  of  the  road. 
Were  there  only  a  lead  driver,  the  sweep  taken  on 
corners  would  not  be  wide  enough,  and  it  takes 
some  time  to  get  such  a  ponderous  engine  as  a 
75-millimetre  gun  out  of  a  ditch. 

The  regiment  of  artillery  comes  out  from 
barracks  in  one  long  column,  perhaps — unless  one 
battery  or  a  greater  proportion  of  the  whole  has 
further  to  travel  than  the  batteries  which  take  the 
straightest  road.  For,  if  there  are  two  or  more 
parallel  roads  leading  from  the  point  of  departure 


IN  CAMP  AND  ON  THE  MARCH        loi 

to  the  destination,  if  it  is  possible  for  any  con- 
siderable part  of  the  journey  to  divide  up  an 
artillery  regiment  into  separate  batteries,  this  is 
done.  The  civilian  has  no  conception  of  the  length 
of  line  on  the  road  which  an  artillery  regiment  of 
ten  batteries  would  take  up,  nor  can  one  who  has 
not  experienced  the  dust  of  a  military  march 
understand  what  sort  of  cloud  the  last  battery  of  ten 
would  have  to  march  in.  The  column  goes  out  as  a 
whole,  but  as  soon  as  possible  first  one  battery  and 
then  another  turns  off  from  the  main  route.  If 
there  are  only  two  alternate  routes,  then  each 
alternate  battery  turns  off,  leaving  sufficient  inter- 
val between  the  rest  for  the  dust  of  one  to  settle 
before  the  next  shall  come  along.  If  there  are  more 
than  two  roads,  all  are  used,  for  the  more  a  long 
column  can  be  broken  up  into  separate  units  for  a 
day's  march,  the  sooner  will  the  units  of  the  column 
reach  their  destination. 

The  fact  that  the  larger  a  body  of  men  is,  the 
slower  it  moves,  is  one  well  known  to  military 
authorities,  though  civilians  and  even  many 
military  men  would  be  prepared  to  dispute  it.  It 
will  be  seen  to  be  incontrovertible,  though,  if  one 
realises  that  the  pace  of  any  body  of  men  which 
keeps  together  as  one  whole  is  the  pace  of  the  slow- 


102  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

est  unit,  and,  moreover,  that  when  a  long  column 
is  in  progress,  not  all  its  units  can  keep  exactly  the 
same  pace  as  the  head  of  the  column.  Consequently 
there  occur  a  series  of  checks  in  the  body  of  the 
column;  here  and  there  crowding  forward  occurs, 
and  then  the  units  of  the  column  concerned  in  the 
crowding  have  to  halve  in  order  to  rectify  this — or 
at  least  have  to  check  their  pace  for  the  time.  The 
check  may  travel  from  the  centre  of  the  column 
right  down  to  its  rear,  and  then  there  are  gaps 
which  have  to  be  corrected,  for  when  a  check  occurs 
it  is  always  prolonged  just  a  little  too  long  a  time — 
and  then  the  head  of  the  column  has  to  check  in 
order  for  the  rear  to  catch  up.  And,  the  longer  the 
column,  the  more  of  these  irritating  little  checks 
there  will  be,  with  a  net  consequence  that  the  col- 
umn will  take  relatively  longer  to  pass  a  given  point 
or  to  arrive  at  a  given  spot. 

Because  of  these  checks,  as  well  as  to  give  more 
air  and  comfort  to  the  men,  in  all  arms  of  the 
service  intervals  are  maintained  on  the  march,  and 
a  column  is  divided  up  into  as  many  separate  units 
as  possible.  Infantry  maintain  intervals  betwee'n 
companies,  cavalry  maintain  intervals  between 
squadrons,  and  artillery  maintain  intervals  between 
batteries,    while    the   two   mounted  arms  split  up 


IN  CAMP  AND  ON  THE  MARCH        103 

their  columns  if  parallel  roads  are  available,  for  the 
intervals  do  not  quite  compensate  for  the  checks 
described,  and,  the  smaller  the  units  of  the  force 
can  be  made  by  means  of  separate  roads,  the  shorter 
will  be  the  march  between  two  points. 


CHAPTER  IX 
MANCEUVRES 

MANOEUVRES  form  an  expensive  portion  of 
the  conscript's  training,  and  it  will  be  un- 
derstood, when  it  is  remembered  that  under  ordi- 
nary peace  conditions  France  maintains  twenty- 
military  stations,  each  forming  the  skeleton  of  an 
army  corps,  that  the  annual  cost  to  the  state  runs 
into  a  considerable  fraction  of  the  total  military 
expenditure,  this  including  the  cost  of  food  for  men, 
forage  for  horses,  the  running  of  transports  and 
stores,  and  all  the  expenses  incidental  to  the  main- 
tenance of  troops  in  the  field.  One  item  alone,  the 
cost  of  shells  fired  by  artillery  during  their  annual 
practice,  represent  a  large  expenditure,  for  each 
shell  is  in  itself  a  complicated  piece  of  machinery, 
which  must  be  perfectly  accurate  in  all  its  parts, 
and  is  a  costly  thing  to  produce. 

Not  that  the  soldier  on  manoeuvres  ever  counts 
cost;  the  majority  of  the  troops  do  not  even  think 
of  such  a  thing.  They  are  out  roughing  it,  a 
business    which    gratifies    the    instincts    of    most 

104 


MANCEUVRES  J05 

healthy  minded  and  bodied  men,  and  one  which  is 
conducive  to  health  and  high  spirits.  Your  con- 
script on  manoeuvres  is  a  different  being  from  the 
one  who  came  to  the  colours  in  the  previous  Oc- 
tober. He  has  acquired  a  self-confidence  and  self- 
reliance  of  which  he  was  innocent  at  the  beginning 
of  his  training;  he  came  as  a  boy,  but  now  there  are 
about  him  the  signs  of  a  man,  and  the  first  camp 
more  than  anything  else  gives  him  a  realisation  of 
the  value  of  military  training  from  a  man's  own 
point  of  view,  and  quite  apart  from  its  value  to  the 
state.  By  the  time  the  season  of  manoeuvres  is  over 
he  is  a  second-year  man,  and  has  begun  to  feel 
his  feet. 

If  one  takes  a  map  of  France  and  picks  out  the 
twenty  stations  of  the  various  army  corps  scattered 
throughout  the  country,  and  then  if  one  realises 
the  numbers  of  men  actually  serving  that  these 
stations  represent,  one  will  see  that  it  is  quite 
impossible  that  all  the  army  corps  of  the  country 
should  make  a  point  of  undergoing  their  man- 
oeuvres as  one  united  body.  The  disturbance 
inflicted  from  a  civilian  point  of  view  on  the  area 
chosen  would  be  enormous,  and  the  result  of  no 
more  value  as  regards  the  training  of  officers  and 
men  than  when  two  or  three  army  corps  conduct 
their   mimic   warfare    together.      Certainly    more 


io6  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

than  one  army  corps  should  be  engaged  in  an 
annual  set  of  manoeuvres.  For  instance,  if  one 
took  Lyons  as  the  station  concerned,  and  assumed 
that  the  army  corps  stationed  at  Lyons  conducted 
its  mancEUvres  year  after  year  independently  of 
those  army  corps  which  have  their  headquarters 
at  other  centres,  it  would  be  easily  understood  that 
the  army  corps  with  headquarters  at  Lyons  would, 
to  a  certain  extent,  get  into  a  rule-of-thumb  way 
of  working,  and  would  fail  to  keep  itself  abreast 
of  the  various  discoveries  that  are  constantly  being 
made  by  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  commanders 
in  the  art  of  war.  It  is  essential  that  units  should 
as  far  as  possible  be  able  to  interchange  ideas,  and 
learn  new  ways  from  each  other,  for  war  is  a  busi- 
ness in  which,  given  forces  of  equal  strength,  the 
most  intelligently  controlled  army  wins. 

The  manoeuvre  areas  of  France  are  many.  There 
are  stretches  of  hill  country  like  the  district  of  the 
Vosges ;  forest  stretches  like  the  Ardennes  in  which 
the  French  Army  has  recently  conducted  some  of 
its  stiffest  fights;  great  open  plains  like  that  which 
lies  about  Chalons,  or  like  the  Breton  Landcs;  and 
river  basins  of  diversified  country,  giving  reaches 
of  hill,  valley  and  woodland,  and  most  useful  of 
all  from  a  military  educational  point  of  view,  since 


MANCEUVRES  107 

they  afford  training  in  practically  all  branches  of 
the  soldier's  work. 

In  average  manoeuvres,  two  forces,  designated 
respectively  as  a  blue  and  a  red  force,  or  in  some 
way  distinguished  from  each  other  by  marks  which 
enable  men  to  tell  "friend"  from  "enemy,"  are 
set  to  face  each  other  in  a  certain  limited  area. 
Each  force  is  expected  to  do  its  best  to  render  the 
other  ineffective  as  a  fighting  force,  and  the 
conditions  are  made  to  resemble  those  of  real  war- 
fare as  nearly  as  possible.  It  must  be  said,  how- 
ever, that  up  to  the  present,  no  nation  in  its  mili- 
tary manoeuvres  has  ever  allowed  sufficiently  for 
casualties ;  as  an  instance  may  be  cited  the  case 
of  a  regiment  which,  on  a  certain  set  of  manoeuvres 
in  France,  was  surrounded  and  entirely  put  out 
of  action  early  in  the  course  of  the  operations.  Had 
the  business  been  real,  the  men  of  that  particular 
regiment  would  all  have  been  either  dead  or  pris- 
oners, but"  they  were  allowed  to  continue  to  count 
in  the  force  to  which  they  belonged,  and  the  com- 
mander of  the  opposing  force  simply  scored  up  so 
much  credit  for  having  achieved  a  brilliant  military 
operation.  Of  course,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
training  officers  and  men,  for  which  manoeuvres  are 
specially  designed,  it  was  quite  right  that  the  officers 
and  men  of  this  unit  should  take  part  in  the  opera- 


io8  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

tions  up  to  the  last  day,  but,  since  men  do  not  resur- 
rect in  this  fashion  after  a  real  battle,  it  may  be  said, 
viewing  the  matter  disinterestedly,  that  there  was 
no  further  tactical  value  in  the  scheme  carried  out. 
The  opposing  forces  were  so  constituted  for  the 
operation  as  to  be  of  about  equal  strength,  and  the 
presence  or  absence  of  the  regiment  referred  to 
would  have  been  quite  sufficient  to  turn  the  scale 
one  way  or  the  other — and  yet  they  were  allowed 
to  take  part  after  having  been  theoretically  wiped 
out  of  existence  I  This  anomalous  method  of  pro- 
cedure is  not  peculiar  to  the  French  Army,  how- 
ever, but  is  practically  common  to  the  armies  of 
all  nations. 

The  nature  of  the  work  which  the  conscript  has 
to  perform  on  manceuvres  is  purely  a  matter  of 
luck.  For  instance,  the  force  in  which  one  is 
serving  may  be  compelled,  in  order  to  carry  out 
the  scheme  of  its  commander,  to  execute  a  wheeling 
or  turning  movement  to  either  flank,  and,  supposing 
a  wheel  to  the  right  flank  is  required,  then  the 
men  on  the  right  flank  have  very  little  marching 
to  do,  and  very  little  work,  since  their  part  in  the 
scheme  is  to  wait  for  the  wheeling  flank  to  come 
round.  An  amusing  old  scamp  whose  service 
began  when  the  five  years'  law  was  still  in  force, 
and  who  served  in  a  French  infantry  battalion  up 


MANCEUVRES  109 

to  a  short  time  ago,  used  to  allege  that  he  was 
once  right-hand  man  of  an  army  corps  which 
wheeled  in  this  fashion  with  the  right  flank  for  a 
pivot.  "I  stood  for  three  weeks,"  he  alleged,  "on 
that  flank,  waiting  for  the  outer  flank  to  come 
round,  and  looking  up  the  line  to  see  that  the  men 
kept  their  dressing."  The  "dressing,"  it  should  be 
explained,  is  a  term  used  in  both  the  French  and 
British  Army  for  the  keeping  of  line  by  the  men. 
But,  speaking  seriously,  these  wheeling  move- 
ments occur  frequently  during  a  term  of  man- 
oeuvres; when  the  business  is  over,  and  the  men  of 
the  various  units  come  to  compare  notes,  they  are 
often  puzzled  at  the  enormous  amount  of  work  and 
marching  imposed  on  one  unit,  while  another  had 
practically  nothing  to  do,  and  stayed  very  nearly 
in  the  same  place  throughout  the  whole  time.  For, 
though  the  part  that  his  own  regiment  has  to  play 
in  a  scheme  is  usually  explained  to  the  conscript, 
the  strategical  nature  of  the  scheme  as  a  whole  is 
generally  beyond  his  comprehension.  This  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at,  since  a  strategical  scheme  is 
planned  out  by  the  best  brains  of  the  army  corps — 
at  least,  the  staff  officers  are  supposed  to  possess 
the  best  brains,  and  are  given  their  posts  mainly  on 
account  of  greater  fitness  for  the  planning  of  mili- 
tary operations. 


no  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

Manoeuvres  as  a  whole  approximate  as  nearly 
as  is  possible,  in  view  of  the  difference  in  circum- 
stances, to  active  service,  but  "nearly  as  possible" 
is  not  "quite,"  and  the  lessons  learned  on  man- 
oeuvres, valuable  though  they  are,  cannot  be  un- 
reservedly applied  to  active  service.  Reference 
has  already  been  made  to  the  way  in  which  the 
soldier  enjoys  his  period  of  manoeuvres,  but  no 
man  enjoys  active  service  in  a  similar  fashion,  and 
moral,  one  of  the  greatest  deciding  factors  in  war, 
is  entirely  absent  from  the  mimic  warfare  in  which 
armies  engage  in  time  of  peace.  At  the  same  time 
the  lessons  learned  from  manoeuvres  are  as  valuable 
as  they  are  varied.  Commanding  officers  learn  the 
amount  of  strain  which  they  can  impose  on  their 
men;  the  conditions  under  which  transport  can 
and  must  be  brought  up  for  the  use  of  the  troops 
can  be  studied  with  almost  as  much  accuracy  as 
in  warfare;  the  cavalry  commander  learns  the 
value,  from  a  war  point  of  view,  of  his  men  as 
scouts  and  on  detached  duties,  while  the  artillery 
officer  finds  out,  as  he  never  could  without 
manoeuvre  experience,  the  possibilities  of  gun 
transport,  and  the  business  of  ranging  positions 
with  a  view  to  rendering  them  untenal^le  by  shell- 
fire.  Where  the  manoeuvre  period  fails  as  regards 
war  lies  mainly  in  the  absence  of  disadvantages. 


MANOEUVRES  in 

As  already  remarked,  the  conditions  under  which 
transport  can  be  brought  up  for  the  use  of  troops 
can  be  studied,  but  sometimes  in  war  transport 
goes  wrong,  or  gets  captured,  and  an  army  has  to 
do  its  best  to  keep  the  field  until  supplementary 
supplies  can  be  obtained;  manoeuvres  never  impose 
this  form  of  disability  on  the  troops.  The  cavalry 
commander  is  unable  to  ascertain  what  his  men 
would  do  when  actually  under  fire,  and  though  ar- 
tillery officers  learn  to  range  a  position,  they  are 
unable  to  judge  what  the  troops  occupying  that 
position  will  be  like  after  shelling  has  been  carried 
out.  Manoeuvres  teach  up  to  a  point,  but  from 
that  point  the  art  of  war  can  be  learned  only  from 
the  grim  business  itself,  and,  since  no  two  bodies 
of  troops  are  ever  in  the  same  frame  of  mind,  and 
no  two  battles  are  fought  under  identical  conditions, 
the  art  of  war  is  never  learned,  simple  though  its 
principles  are. 

The  average  conscript  is  troubled  little  about  such 
matters  as  these.  As  an  infantryman,  his  business 
is  to  entrench  himself  when  ordered  to  do  so;  to 
advance  by  short  rushes,  squad  alternating  with 
squad,  during  the  work  of  getting  nearer  the  enemy; 
to  charge  if  bidden,  or  to  retreat  as  he  advanced, 
in  the  way  that  would  produce  least  damage  to 
the  force  of  which  he  is  a  member  if  that  force 


112  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

were  exposed  to  actual  fire.  Both  in  infantry  and 
cavalry  there  exists  a  prejudice  against  firing  the 
first  blank  cartridge  of  a  manoeuvre  day,  though, 
once  that  first  cartridge  has  been  fired,  a  man  does 
not  care  how  many  more  he  fires,  and  often  men 
have  been  known  to  beg  blank  cartridges  from 
others,  after  firing  their  own.  The  reason  for  the 
prejudice  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  firing  of  the 
first  cartridge  fouls  the  barrel  of  the  rifle  and  ren- 
ders necessary  far  more  thorough  cleaning  at  the 
end  of  the  day  than  would  be  required  if  the  rifle 
had  not  been  fired.  But,  no  matter  how  many  more 
cartridges  may  be  fired  through  the  same  rifle,  they 
cannot  make  the  fouling  of  the  barrel  any  worse, 
and  once  the  fouling  has  been  incurred,  there  is  a 
certain  amount  of  fun  in  blazing  off  blank  cartridges 
at  the  "enemy." 

The  work  of  the  cavalry  is  considerably  more 
varied  than  that  of  the  infantry.  Charges,  which 
form  the  culminating  point  of  cavalry  training 
at  drill,  are  infrequently  indulged  in  on  manoeuvres, 
for  even  in  actual  warfare,  apart  from  the  fact 
that  the  quick  fire  of  modern  rifles  has  rendered 
the  charge  a  rare  thing,  the  conditions  imposed 
by  the  selection  of  infantry  and  artillery  posts  do 
not  often  admit  of  a  definite  cavalry  charge, 
owing  to  the  nature  of  the  ground  to  be  covered. 


MANOEUVRES  113 

During  manoeuvres  the  chief  value  of  cavalry  lies  in 
their  ability  to  act  as  mounted  infantry;  that  is, 
they  are  able  to  concentrate  fire  rapidly  on  a  given 
point,  and  to  get  near  that  point  more  quickly 
than  infantry,  thus  rendering  their  fire  decisive. 
Further,  small  bodies  of  cavalry  are  employed  in 
reconnaissance  and  detached  duties  of  various 
kinds;  the  modern  army  in  movement  always 
throws  out  well  to  the  front  a  screen  of  cavalry, 
whose  object  is  to  find  and  report  on  the  presence 
of  the  enemy,  to  maintain  contact  with  him,  but 
not  to  engage  in  decisive  action,  which  is  as  a  rule, 
and  practically  always  when  the  opposing  forces 
are  of  equal  strength,  left  mainly  to  the  artillery 
and  infantry  following  on  behind  the  cavalry  screen. 
During  a  period  of  manoeuvres  cavalry  patrols  theo- 
retically cut  telegraph  wires,  destroy  bridges, 
and  do  all  they  can  to  impede  the  progress  of  the 
advancing  enemy.  Sometimes  small  parties  of 
scouts  are  sent  out  to  get  on  to  the  enemy's  lines 
of  communication,  and,  if  possible,  cut  them.  An 
army  with  its  line  of  communication  cut  is  in  prac- 
tice like  a  man  with  his  windpipe  severed,  and  thus 
it  will  be  understood  that  if  cavalry  perform  this 
business  effectively,  their  value  to  the  force  to 
w^hich  they  belong  is  enormous.  This,  however,  is 
more  true  of  manoeuvres  than  of  war,  for  in  the 


114  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

latter  communications  are  so  well  guarded  that  as 
a  rule  it  takes  a  stronger  force  than  a  body  of  cav- 
alry unsupported  by  artillery  to  get  on  to  a  line  of 
communication  with  a  view  to  damaging  it. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  prejudice 
which  the  infantryman  has  against  firing  the  first 
blank  cartridge  of  the  day.  Since  this  is  the  case 
where  the  rifle  is  concerned,  one  may  guess  what 
the  artilleryman's  feelings  are  like  when  his  gun 
has  to  fire  the  first  shot,  for  the  cleaning  of  a  field- 
gun,  even  after  firing  blank  ammunition,  is  no 
light  matter.  The  bore  of  the  gun  has  literally  to 
be  scrubbed  out  in  order  to  remove  the  fouling,  and 
the  gunner's  task  is  not  an  enviable  one;  the  cloth- 
ing of  the  first-year  conscript,  when  the  gun  has 
been  cleaned  after  firing,  looks  as  if  the  man  had 
been  hauled  up  a  chimney  by  his  heels,  and  though 
men  keep  a  special  suit  of  fatigue  clothes  for  use 
on  this  task,  they  like  it  none  the  more  for  that. 

In  addition  to  the  ordinary  manoeuvre  period  in 
which  cavalry  and  infantry  participate,  artillery 
units  go  every  year  to  a  practice  camp  which  is  a 
special  area  set  apart  for  the  firing  of  live  shells, 
with  a  view  to  giving  officers  and  men  alike  training 
in  the  realities  of  their  work.  The  so-called  smoke- 
less powder — which  in  reality  is  not  smokeless — 
used  on  these  occasions,  together  with  the  passage 


MANOEUVRES  115 

of  a  shell  through  the  rifling  of  the  gun,  renders  the 
cleaning  of  the  bore  an  even  more  messy  business 
than  that  incurred  in  firing  blank  ammunition  dur- 
ing tactical  exercises.  Drivers  and  gunners  alike 
generally  enjoy  their  time  at  practice  camp,  but  the 
gunners  use  language  over  cleaning  the  guns,  and 
with  good  cause  too,  when  one  considers  the  nature 
and  difficulty  of  the  task. 

But,  whether  the  occasion  be  that  of  practice 
camp  for  the  artillery,  or  tactical  exercise  for  the 
three  arms,  there  is  more  to  enjoy  than  to  cavil 
at.  Manoeuvres  come  at  the  best  period  of  the 
year,  from  the  weather  point  of  view;  the  days  are 
warm,  but  not  too  warm,  and  the  cool  nights  in- 
duce healthy  sleep.  There  is  plenty  of  food,  gen- 
erally a  sufficiency  of  tobacco  and  cigarettes,  and 
the  canteen  travels  with  the  men.  There  is  a  pleas- 
ant uncertainty  about  the  nature  of  the  day's  work 
and  the  length  of  time  it  will  take;  one  may  be  out 
until  late  in  the  evening,  or  one  may  finish  in  the 
afternoon,  and,  after  an  inspection  of  arms,  be  at 
liberty  to  go  to  the  canteen  and  discuss  things  in 
general  with  one's  comrades,  or  with  the  men  who, 
coming  from  other  stations,  have  new  stories  to  tell 
and  new  matters  to  discuss.  One  may,  granted  the 
necessary  leave,  walk  over  to  a  near-by  town,  where 
is  certain  to  be  at  least  a  cinema  hall,  and  restau- 


Ii6  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

rants  outside  which  one  may  sit  by  a  table  at  the 
pavement  edge  and  view  civilian  life.  Or  there  may 
be  a  night  march  to  be  accomplished,  and,  though 
this  is  a  tiring  business,  it  has  a  certain  amount  of 
interest  as  long  as  the  weather  holds  good.  The 
chief  drawback  to  manoeuvres  is  a  rainy  season, 
when  the  soldier  has  a  particularly  unenviable 
time  of  it.  There  are  seldom  sufficient  fires  at 
which  to  dry  one's  clothes;  there  is,  perhaps,  the 
business  of  pitching  tents  in  the  rain,  and  then  the 
crowding  of  self,  arms,  and  equipment  into  the 
canvas  shelter,  while  outside  the  rain  keeps  on  in 
a  way  which  suggests  that  fine  days  are  things  of 
the  past,  never  to  be  experienced  again.  The 
infantry  go  squelching  out  from  camp  in  the 
morning;  the  cavalry  pull  up  their  wet  lines  and, 
getting  mounted,  splash  out  through  mud  puddles, 
while  the  artillery  drivers  harness  up  their  horses 
with  a  knowledge  that  a  hard  day  is  in  store  for 
them,  both  on  the  road,  where  their  horses  will  be 
overtaxed  by  the  heavy  going,  and  in  camp,  where 
the  cleaning  of  wet  saddlery  and  equipment  and 
the  grooming  of  muddy  horses  is  enough  to  spoil 
temper  at  the  end  of  the  day's  work.  And  the 
transport  waggons,  standing  parked  in  the  rain,  look 
as  if  they  were  used  for  the  carriage  of  material- 
ised despair,  and  had  been  abandoned  because  the 


MANCEUVRES  117 

loads  were  too  heavy.  A  wet  town  or  village  is  a 
dreary  sight,  but  a  wet  camp  is  the  most  depressing 
thing  on  earth. 

Even  in  wet  weather,  however,  the  spirit  of  the 
conscript  is  usually  proof  against  depression. 
There  are  compensations :  for  one  thing,  work  is 
lightened  as  far  as  possible,  and  usually  the 
operations  of  the  manoeuvres  are  modified  in 
case  of  a  continual  spell  of  wet  weather,  for  it  is 
not  only  the  men  who  suffer  from  adverse  climatic 
conditions,  and  it  is  not  the  business  of  a  period 
of  manoeuvres  to  impose  too  great  a  strain  on  the 
forces  taking  part  therein.  When  the  men  are  in 
their  tents  and  the  rain  is  driving  down  outside,  the 
interminable  songs  of  the  army  may  be  heard  from 
the  interiors  of  the  tents.  Even  in  a  standing  camp 
— that  is  to  say,  a  camp  located  in  one  position  for 
a  period  of  several  days — the  men  are  made  to 
undergo  a  certain  number  of  parades  in  order  to 
keep  them  in  health,  for  continued  idleness  in  camp 
almost  certainly  means  disease,  and,  as  has  already 
been  remarked,  the  authorities  of  the  French  Army 
are  fully  alive  to  the  necessity  for  preserving  the 
health  of  the  men. 

On  the  average,  manoeuvre  days  are  fine  days; 
a  spell  of  wet  weather  is  exceptional,  for  the  season 
of  the  year  is  chosen,  in  some  degree,  with  a  view 


ii8  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

to  imparting  as  much  instruction  to  officers  and 
men  alike  as  is  possible  in  the  allotted  period.  Given 
fine  weather,  one  has  to  work — ^but  then,  on.e  has 
to  work  in  barracks,  and  not  in  such  congenial 
fashion  as  in  this  life  of  open  air  and  comparative 
freedom. 

As  the  end  of  the  manoeuvre  period  approaches, 
the  second-year  men  get  more  and  more  excited,  for 
your  Frenchman,  whether  as  conscript  or  civilian, 
is  an  excitable  person,  and  not  ashamed  of  show- 
ing his  feelings  as  is  the  man  west  of  the  Channel. 
For  these  second-year  men  civilian  life  is  getting 
very  near.  Pierre  will  go  back  to  the  farm,  and 
Jacques  will  return  to  his  place  behind  the  counter, 
while  Jean  will  once  more  polish  the  seat  of  the 
office  stool  for  a  stated  period  each  day.  But 
Jacques  and  Pierre  and  Jean  will  at  times  look 
back  to  the  good  days  and  the  cheery  comrades  of 
the  last  manoeuvres,  and  perhaps,  although  this  is  a 
conscript  army,  they  will  know  a  transient  regret 
in  that  they  will  never  again  go  out  from  the  bar- 
rack gate  as  units  of  a  column  setting  out  on  the 
long  march. 


CHAPTER  X 
WITH   THE   CAVALRY    SCOUTS 

THE  incidents  related  in  this  chapter  took  place 
a  few  years  back  during  a  certain  manoeuvre 
season,  and  for  obvious  reasons  it  is  impossible  to 
indicate  the  men,  forces  concerned,  or  locality  more 
closely  than  that.  The  forces  concerned  were  an 
army  corps  advancing  from  the  south,  and  one  ad- 
vancing from  the  north,  toward  each  other,  with  a 
view  to  trying  conclusions  under  manoeuvre  condi- 
tions. The  story  concerns  scouts  of  the  blue  force, 
advancing  from  the  north — it  was  one  of  these 
scouts  of  the  blue  force  who  told  the  story.  It  must 
not  be  taken  as  a  typical  story  of  army  life,  for  the 
circumstances  under  which  these  men  were  placed 
were  exceptional,  agreeably  so ;  it  is,  however,  suffi- 
ciently typical  for  relation,  in  that  it  embodies  things 
actually  accomplished  by  soldiers  of  the  Army  of  the 
Republic.  Like  most  things  that  happen  both  in 
manoeuvres  and  in  war,  it  could  never  happen  again. 
The  blue  force,  with  at  least  fifty  miles  to  go  after 
leaving  barracks,  knew  that  the  red  force  would 

119 


I20  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

have  further  to  travel,  since  the  limits  of  the  manoeu- 
vre area  were  clearly  marked  out  on  maps  supplied 
to  the  officers  taking  part,  and  each  force  knew  from 
what  garrison  the  force  opposing  it  was  coming. 
Beyond  this,  though,  neither  officers  nor  men  of  the 
blue  force  knew  from  what  direction  the  "reds" 
would  attack,  and  the  composition  and  strength  of 
each  arm  of  the  "reds"  was  for  the  "blues"  to  find 
out ;  that  is  what  cavalry  patrols  and  scouting  parties 
are  for :  to  ascertain  the  strength  and  disposition  of 
the  enemy ;  and,  in  order  to  make  the  manoeuvres  as 
much  like  real  war  as  possible,  each  side  was  kept  in 
ignorance,  as  far  as  might  be,  of  the  movements  of 
the  other. 

There  were  two  days  of  steady  marching,  through 
days  that  were  not  too  warm  and  nights  that  were 
decidedly  cold.  Marching  in  column,  this  business, 
with  plenty  of  dust  along  the  roads  and  the  squad- 
rons closed  up  so  that  one's  horse's  nose  was  not 
far  from  the  tail  of  the  horse  in  the  next  rank.  In 
the  cool  weather  the  horses  travelled  well,  and  the 
cavalry  got  into  camp  fairly  early  in  the  afternoon, 
when  the  bivouacs  were  made  and  the  men  rested 
and  ate,  after  seeing  to  the  needs  of  their  horses. 
Late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  second  day  a  canvas 
town  came  into  view  after  the  troops  had  passed 
over  a  small  river,  and  here  the  regiments  went  into 


WITH  THE  CAVALRY  SCOUTS     I2I 

camp.  At  twelve  o'clock  that  night  the  manoeuvre 
period  was  to  start,  and  no  action  of  any  kind  bear- 
ing on  the  actual  manoeuvres  might  be  undertaken 
until  midnight  had  passed,  though  commanders 
might  make  their  plans  and  allot  their  units  and  men 
to  the  various  parts  they  intended  the  latter  to  play 
in  the  struggle  for  points  in  the  game.  The  troops 
themselves  looked  forward  to  an  exciting  time :  in 
the  blue  army,  every  man  knew  that  he  was  to  cap- 
ture a  "red"  if  the  chance  came  his  way;  he  must 
act  as  in  real  war,  except  that  the  cartridges  would 
be  blank  and  the  business  would  be  one  of  sport  with 
the  grimness  of  war  left  out. 

In  a  certain  regiment  of  chasseurs  which  formed 
part  of  the  blue  army,  Lieutenant  Lenoir  received 
his  orders  with  regard  to  special  reconnaissance 
duty,  and,  acting  on  these  orders,  he  gathered  to- 
gether Corporal  Jean  and  Trooper  Jacques,  both 
qualified  as  signallers,  whose  first  names  will  serve 
for  the  purposes  of  this  narrative.  He  also  collected 
from  their  respective  troops  certain  men  more  than 
usually  efficient  in  scouting  duty,  known  respectively 
as  Pierre  and  Guillaumette — or  little  Billy — from 
one  pcloton,  Henri  and  I'Anglais  (the  latter  from  his 
English  way  of  drinking  beer  when  he  could  get  it, 
a  trick  acquired  in  his  native  Lorraine,  though  his 
fellows  gave  him  his  nickname  because  of  it,  and 


.122  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

from  another  peloton  more  good  men  to  the  number 
of  four) .  Lenoir  would  have  liked  to  take  more,  but 
he  knew  that  for  the  success  of  the  plan  with  which 
he  was  entrusted  a  small  body  of  men  would  get 
through  with  less  chance  of  being  seen — the  smaller 
the  better,  down  to  a  certain  point.  So  he  took  the 
minimum  possible.  They  obeyed  the  rules  of  the 
game  thoroughly,  for  it  was  not  until  the  stroke  of 
twelve  that  the  men  were  given  permission  to  saddle 
up;  all  they  knew  at  that  time  was  that  they  were 
going  out  on  detachment  duty  of  some  kind,  away 
from  the  army  itself,  and  that  was  enough  for 
them.  Detachment  duty  is  always  welcome,  and 
Lenoir  had  a  reputation  among  the  men  of  being 
one  of  the  best  officers  in  the  regiment,  although  a 
very  quiet  man,  comparatively  speaking. 

The  men  were  a  good  crowd,  too.  The  signallers 
knew  their  work  thoroughly  and  were  keen  soldiers ; 
the  scouts  chosen  were  men  who  took  actual  pleas- 
ure in  solving  problems  of  country,  second-year 
and  re-engaged  men,  who  took  soldiering  seriously 
and  enjoyed  work  like  this.  Altogether  it  was  a 
very  contented  and  very  keen  little  party  that  set 
out  from  the  camp  a  quarter  of  an  hour  after  mid- 
night, with  Lenoir  leading  into  the  black  and  rainy 
night  that  came  on  them  as  they  rode.  They  went 
steadily  on   for   some  time — it   was   three   in  the 


WITH  THE  CAVALRY  SCOUTS        123 

morning  when  Lenoir  halted  his  men  under  shelter 
of  a  tree  that  branched  out  over  their  road  and  told 
them  the  object  of  their  journey.  He  explained, 
by  the  aid  of  the  map,  what  they  were  expected 
to  do. 

The  line  of  country  that  would  be  chosen  by  the 
"reds"  had  been  carefully  calculated :  the  com- 
mander of  the  "blues"  had  estimated  that,  with  a 
view  to  avoiding  rivers  and  hills,  and  keeping  to 
open  ground,  the  commander  of  the  red  army 
would  bring  up  his  men — or,  at  least,  most  of  them 
f — ^by  the  western  side  of  the  manoeuvre  area, 
leaving  a  large  stretch  of  country  unoccupied  to 
the  east.  It  was  the  business  of  this  patrol  to  go 
down  by  way  of  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  man- 
oeuvre area,  get  on  to  the  "reds"  line  of  communi- 
cation, and  cut  it,  thus  preventing  (in  theory)  the 
sending  up  of  stores,  and  (also  in  theory)  reducing 
the  red  force  to  such  a  state  as  regards  stores  and 
ammunition  that  it  would  be  forced  (once  more  in 
theory)  to  surrender.  The  scheme  bespeaks  the 
way  in  which  modern  military  plans  are  thought  out, 
and  how  one  calculates  on  probabilities.  The  "blue" 
commander  assumed  that  such  a  course  as  bringing 
the  men  up  the  western  side  would  be  adopted  by 
the  commander  of  the  "reds"  :  he  was  not  certain 
of  it,  but  assumed  it  to  such  an  extent  that  he  con- 


12^;  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

sidered  it  worth  while  to  waste  a  cavalry  patrol  on 
it;  supposing  he  were  wrong,  then  he  only  lost  half 
a  dozen  men  or  so  and  one  officer  from  his  effec- 
tives; supposing,  on  the  other  hand,  that  he  were 
right,  he  would  have  accomplished  a  movement  that 
would  render  ineffective  anything  his  "enemy" 
might  do. 

It  was  their  business,  Lenoir  explained,  to  get 
quite  down  to  the  southern  limit  of  the  manoeuvre 
area,  so  as  to  cut  the  line  as  nearly  as  possible  to 
neutral  ground,  for  the  further  back  they  got  the 
less  likelihood  there  would  be  of  encountering  any 
strong  force  left  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the 
line.  They  were  to  ride  warily,  avoid  hills,  and  keep 
in  hollows,  and  at  the  same  time  they  were  to  keep 
an  eye  out  for  any  bodies  of  troops  that  they  might 
see.  Their  business  was  to  run  from  everybody 
whom  they  might  see  during  the  following  day,  for 
it  would  not  do  to  risk  the  capture  or  loss  of  a  man 
while  on  the  journey;  every  man  would  be  needed 
at  the  journey's  end. 

All  this  was  explained  by  the  aid  of  the  map, 
and,  realising  the  importance  of  their  mission,  the 
men  were  more  keen  than  ever  over  its  fulfilment. 
They  mounted  again  and  rode  on,  Lenoir  always 
leading;  at  times  he  halted  them  that  he  might 
consult  his  map  with  the  help  of  an  electric  torch 


WITH  THE  CAVALRY  SCOUTS     125 

where  two  roads  branched,  or  where  there  was  any 
uncertainty  about  their  direction.  The  rain  passed 
off;  the  stars  came  out  and  paled  as  dawn  grew; 
they  hahed  in  the  grey  of  early  daybreak  down 
under  the  shelter  of  a  hill.  Before  them  was  a  tiny 
valley  through  which  a  stream  flowed,  and  beyond 
an  unbroken  range  of  other  hills  of  which  the  crests 
showed  no  signs  of  human  occupation.  A  short 
distance  along  the  way  they  had  come  was  a  farm- 
house built  into  a  nook  of  the  hills,  while  open 
country  marked  the  way  ahead,  beyond  the  base 
of  the  hill  under  which  they  had  camped.  They 
gave  their  horses  water  at  the  stream,  and,  since 
Lenoir  said  they  would  halt  there  for  nearly  two 
hours  to  rest  the  horses,  they  got  out  their  own 
food,  after  feeding  their  mounts,  but  did  not  off- 
saddle  or  remove  any  equipment,  for  the  men  as 
well  as  their  officer  knew  that  they  were  parallel 
now  with  the  enemy's  force. 

Jacques  and  I'Anglais  went  out  to  collect  fire- 
wood, for  they  thought  it  worth  while  to  make 
coffee  during  their  halt.  These  two  passed  well  out 
of  sight  of  the  rest  round  the  base  of  the  hill,  and 
walked  suddenly  and  unsuspectingly  on  to  two  of 
the  scouts  of  the  enemy's  force,  who,  being  a  little 
more  quick  than  either  Jacques  or  I'Anglais,  in- 
formed them  that  they  were  prisoners  and  must 


126  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

come  with  them.  Jacques,  however,  temporised; 
he  pointed  out  to  these  scouts  of  the  "reds"  that 
he  and  his  companion  were,  Hke  their  captors, 
mounted  men,  and  they  certainly  could  not  walk 
and  leave  their  horses  to  break  loose  and  perhaps 
damage  themselves.  They  had  tied  their  horses 
up  round  the  corner,  said  Jacques,  and  if  their 
captors  would  only  come  with  them  they  would 
get  the  animals  and  follow  as  prisoners  without 
trouble.  The  two  "reds"  hesitated  a  bit,  but  finally 
saw  reason  in  this,  and,  thinking  that  their  two 
prisoners  were  quite  alone,  followed  without  dis- 
mounting round  to  where  the  horses  were  supposed 
to  be  tied.  So  well  was  Lenoir's  little  camp  located 
that  the  two  "reds"  followed  Jacques  and  I'Anglais 
almost  into  it  before  they  perceived  that  they  were 
in  the  vicinity  of  a  force  far  stronger  than  their 
two  selves.  When  they  grasped  the  situation  fully, 
they  put  spurs  to  their  mounts,  turned,  and  fled. 
Jacques  grabbed  at  the  bridle  rein  of  one,  but 
missed,  and  I'Anglais  was  so  lucky  as  to  secure 
the  helmet  of  the  other  man,  which  he  tied  to  his 
saddle  by  way  of  a  trophy.  The  two  "reds,"  who 
were  well  mounted,  went  off  round  the  base  of  the 
hill  and  vanished;  apparently  they  formed  a  patrol 
on  the  ej^treme  flank  of  the  red  force,  for  no  other 


WITH  THE  CAVALRY  SCOUTS        127 

men  appeared  to  reinforce  or  replace  them  while  the 
little  party  of  "blues"  remained  halted. 

The  men  of  the  blue  patrol  got  their  firewood 
and  made  coffee,  which  at  that  hour  of  the  morn- 
ing was  more  to  them  than  food.  More  quickly 
than  he  had  at  first  intended  Lenoir  bade  them 
tighten  girths  and  mount,  for  he  feared  lest  the 
patrol  which  they  had  encountered  would  carry 
news  of  their  presence,  and  bring  down  on  them  a 
greater  force  from  which  it  might  be  impossible  to 
escape. 

Through  the  early  hours  of  the  day  they  rode, 
sometimes  on  roads,  sometimes  across  country. 
The  average  of  their  course  took  them  over  two 
miniature  mountain  ranges,  and  on  the  second  of 
these  little  hill  ranges  they  saw,  very  far  off,  a  body 
of  cavalry  advancing  across  country.  Corporal 
Jean,  together  with  Jacques,  got  down  from  their 
horses  and  set  up  a  heliograph,  with  which  they 
tried  to  "call  up"  the  troops  away  on  the  plain. 
They  could  get  only  fragmentary  answers  from  the 
other  people's  heliographs;  Lenoir  sat  on  his  horse 
beside  them  and  waited  for  a  coherent  message, 
but  evidently  the  cavalry  force  would  not  trust 
them,  nor  reveal  its  own  identity,  for  all  Jean  could 
get  out  of  it,  after  persistent  calling  up,  was  the 
query,  ''Who  are  you?" 


128  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

"Don't  tell  them,"  said  Lenoir,  "but  ask  them 
that  yourself." 

This  Jean  had  already  done,  but  he  tried  it  again 
with  no  better  result  than  before.  By  this  time 
they  could  see  that  the  cavalry  signallers  who  had 
stopped  to  answer  them  were  getting  left  far  be- 
hind by  their  main  body,  and  Jean,  finding  that  he 
could  get  no  satisfaction  out  of  them,  packed  up 
his  own  heliograph  and  mounted  again.  They 
went  on  down  the  hill  into  a  shallow  valley  through 
which  flowed  another  little  river.  At  the  foot  of 
the  hills  they  halted,  and  Guillaumette  went  back 
on  foot  to  the  top  of  the  hill  to  keep  guard  while 
the  others  rested.  After  half  an  hour  one  of  the 
others  relieved  him  from  this  duty,  and  both  men 
reported  that  the  country  all  round  was  clear  of 
enemies,  or  friends.  This  was  as  Lenoir  had  antici- 
pated, for  he  had  judged  by  this  time  they  would 
be  well  behind  the  main  body  of  the  advancing 
red  force. 

They  made  of  this  a  long  halt  for  the  sake  of 
their  horses,  which  had  already  done  the  equivalent 
of  a  day's  work.  It  was  late  in  the  afternoon,  and 
the  power  of  the  sun  had  almost  gone,  when  they 
slung  their  saddles  on  their  horses  again,  and 
girthed  up.  The  valley  through  which  the  little 
river  flowed  lay  level  before  them  for  miles,  and 


WITH  THE  CAVALRY  SCOUTS   129 

they  rode  down  it  toward  where  a  curve  of  the  hills 
on  either  side  prevented  sight  of  their  destination. 
That  curve  seemed  ever  to  recede  as  they  rode,  and 
the  sun  dropped  over  the  crests  of  the  western 
hills,  leaving  the  men  chilled  and  tired.  By  order 
of  Lenoir,  who  set  the  example,  they  dismounted 
and  trudged  on,  leading  their  horses — all  save 
r Anglais,  who  left  his  reins  on  his  horse's  neck  and 
trusted  to  the  animal  to  follow  him.  L' Anglais  and 
his  horse  were  good  friends. 

Dusk  fell  on  them  as  they  mounted  again;  on 
their  left  the  little  river  had  been  companion  of 
their  journey  since  leaving  the  last  range  of  hills, 
but  now  they  turned  away  to  the  right  and  ascended 
slightly  from  the  valley.  Suddenly  the  ground  fell 
away  from  before  them,  and  they  went  down  past 
three  houses  to  a  railway  station  and  goods  yard, 
in  which  stacks  of  forage  and  other  stores,  covered 
by  waterproof  sheets,  lay  with  only  one  man  to 
guard  them,  one  who  was  unsuspecting  of  surprise 
and  easily  captured.  Lenoir  left  here  all  his  men 
with  the  exception  of  Pierre  and  1' Anglais,  and 
these  he  took  with  him  away  out  to  the  other  side 
of  the  village.  Beyond  the  houses  the  officer  and 
his  two  men  sat  down  on  the  ground,  waiting.  At 
last  the  moon  rose,  and  they  espied  a  tent  almost 
concealed  among  trees.    Within  the  tent  they  found 


I30  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

a  corporal  and  a  squad  of  men  belonging  to  a 
squadron  of  train,  all  asleep.  Lenoir  wakened  the 
corporal  and  informed  him  that  he  and  all  his 
party  were  captured,  and  that  the  stores  under 
their  charge  were  subject  to  the  orders  of  the  officer 
commanding  the  blue  army. 

That  was  the  end  of  the  task.  With  his  little 
squad  of  scouts  Lenoir  had  captured  the  unguarded 
stores  of  the  red  force,  and  had  thus  rendered 
ineffective  anything  that  they  might  accomplish  in 
the  matter  of  field  operations.  Theoretically  the 
red  force  was  beaten  on  its  first  day  in  the  field, 
but  in  actual  fact  the  stores  went  up  from  the 
captured  base  to  the  red  army,  as  if  no  capture  had 
been  accomplished,  for  it  would  not  do  to  go  to 
the  expense  of  moving  out  two  army  corps  from 
barracks  for  the  purpose  of  manoeuvres,  and  then 
cancelling  the  mancEuvres  because  a  cavalry  patrol 
had,  by  means  of  hard  riding  and  good  cross-coun- 
try judgment,  achieved  a  theoretical  victory.  Prac- 
tice has  shown  that  in  real  war  a  chance  for  such 
an  achievement  as  that  of  Lenoir's  patrol  does  not 
occur  in  one  out  of  a  thousand  situations,  and  in 
actual  war,  also,  no  commander  would  be  so  foolish 
as  to  leave  his  chief  supplies  in  charge  of  a  cor- 
poral and  squad  of  men  of  a  squadron  of  train. 


WITH  THE  CAVALRY  SCOUTS        131 

Adequate  protection  is  always  afforded  to  lines  of 
communication  by  an  attacking  force  in  war. 

The  incident  is  noteworthy,  however,  in  that  it 
affords  an  example  of  the  way  in  which  military 
plans  are  thought  out.  The  commander  responsible 
for  the  conception  of  Lenoir's  mission  judged  ex- 
actly what  line  of  country  would  be  clear  for  such 
an  advance.  He  could  not  know  whether  or  no 
his  judgment  would  be  at  fault,  but  he  saw  that  the 
plan  was  worth  the  risk  of  an  officer  and  a  dozen 
or  so  of  men,  whose  absence  would  not  materially 
weaken  his  force.  Some  slight  psychological 
knowledge  must  have  been  his  as  well,  for  even 
on  manoeuvres  a  commanding  officer  usually  pro- 
tects his  lines  of  communication,  and  the  base  from 
which  his  stores  are  sent,  more  effectually  than  did 
this  red  commander.  Again,  the  way  in  which 
Lenoir  chose  his  men  is  noteworthy.  He  picked 
the  best  scouts  from  the  squadron  to  which  he  be- 
longed ;  possibly,  had  he  chosen  to  look  throughout 
the  whole  regiment,  he  might  have  obtained  even 
better  men  to  accompany  him,  but  he  chose  men 
whom  he  knew  to  be  good  riders,  careful  of  their 
horses,  and  able  to  undergo  a  long  march.  The 
two  signallers  represented  a  minimum  that  he  must 
take  if  he  wished  to  send  or  receive  messages  to 
or   from   any  other    force.     As   a  matter  of   fact 


132  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

nothing  occurred  to  render  it  necessary  that  any- 
individual  scout  should  be  placed  in  a  position 
where  the  exercise  of  initiative  would  be  an  essen- 
tial; neither  were  the  signallers  called  on  for  spe- 
cial exertions,  or  for  the  full  exercise  of  their  spe- 
cial department  of  knowledge,  but  they  might  have 
been.  Lenoir  chose  his  men  with  a  view  to  com- 
pressing the  greatest  possible  effectiveness  into  the 
smallest  number  compatible  with  the  accomplish- 
ment of  his  mission.  He  chose  them  also  with  a 
view,  not  to  what  they  actually  did  as  individuals, 
but  with  a  view  of  the  demands  that  might  have 
been  made  on  them.  As  the  affair  turned  out,  they 
simply  had  a  quietly  good  time  in  this  "base"  vil- 
lage until  the  manoeuvres  concluded;  Lenoir  saw 
to  it  that  the  horses  received  all  necessary  attention, 
and  for  the  rest  he  left  his  men  to  their  own 
devices.  And  one  may  trust  a  soldier,  either  con- 
script or  volunteer,  to  make  life  worth  living  when 
given  such  a  chance  as  this. 

It  was  a  week  or  more  before  the  scout  of  the  red 
force  got  his  helmet  back.  He  met  I'Anglais  by 
appointment  in  the  canteen  devoted  to  the  use  of 
the  blue  cavalry,  and  received  back  the  headgear 
undamaged.  It  may  be  said  in  conclusion  that  he 
compensated  I'Anglais  in  the  usual  fashion — and 
any  soldier  will  know  what  that  means. 


CHAPTER    XI 
INTERNAL   ECONOMY 

IF  one  should  take  the  trouble  to  enquire  of  the 
chef  at  any  leading  hotel  as  to  whether  he  had 
undergone  military  service  as  a  conscript,  the  an- 
swer would  in  nineteen  cases  out  of  twenty  be  in 
the  affirmative,  and  probably  the  full  nineteen  out 
of  every  twenty  would  also  reply  in  the  affirmative 
if  asked  whether  they  were  Frenchmen.  It  would 
be  enlightening  for  the  average  Englishman  to 
make  such  enquiries,  for  by  that  means  he  would 
realise  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  in  any  other 
way,  the  universality  of  the  French  Army.  Com- 
prehension of  the  fact  that  virtually  every  man  of 
the  French  nation  is  capable  of  taking  his  place 
in  the  ranks  of  some  regiment  without  undergoing 
some  form  of  preliminary  training,  is  impossible 
to  the  English  mind  until  concrete  examples  of  the 
effect  of  this  are  confronted. 

The  point  with  regard  to  the  chefs  is  in  connec- 
tion with  the  way  in  which  the  French  Army  has 
its  food  cooked  and  served.     The  pantalon  rouge 

133 


134  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

lives  well,  for  cooking  is  an  art  indigenous  to 
France,  and  the  very  best  cooks  of  France  practise 
their  art  on  their  comrades  of  the  barrack-room, 
while  there  are  few  companies  or  squadrons  in  the 
French  Army  that  do  not  contain  at  least  one 
professional  chef.  The  British  Army  suffers  at 
times  from  monotonous  menus,  "stews"  alternating 
with  "roast"  until  a  meat-pie  would  be  a  joy,  and 
any  variety  of  diet  would  be  welcome.  But  in 
the  French  Army,  given  materials  corresponding 
in  any  way  to  the  needs  of  the  soldier,  there  is  no 
lack  of  variety  in  the  food.  There  are  two  ways 
of  cooking  a  potato  in  the  British  Army  to  twenty 
in  the  French  service;  the  British  soldiers  get  eggs 
served  in  two  or  three  ways,  but  the  conscript 
cook  of  the  French  Army  can  cook  an  egg  in  a  way 
that  disguises  it  to  such  an  extent  that  a  hen  would 
disown  it — and  there  are  many  ways  of  doing  this. 
Soup  precedes  the  more  solid  course  of  the  French 
soldier's  meal,  and  there  are  savoury  dishes  and 
concoctions  which  to  the  British  soldier  would  be 
but  mystery.  The  French  cook  is  an  artist  at  all 
times,  and  his  art  is  no  less  evident  during  his 
conscript  days  than  before  and  after. 

Sweet  dishes  are  rare,  and  the  taste  of  the  soldier 
lies  more  in  the  matter  of  savouries.  In  addition  to 
the  regular  provisions  made  for  the  troops,  there 


INTERNAL  ECONOMY  135 

are  many  men,  who,  in  their  spare  time,  cook  dishes 
to  suit  their  own  fancies.  The  "messing  allowance" 
of  the  British  service  is  a  thing  unknown,  for  the 
French  soldier's  limited  pay  is  pay  pure  and  simple, 
and  is  not  sufficient  in  amount  to  admit  of  deduc- 
tions of  this  nature.  Much  is  often  made  of  the 
fact  that  the  rate  of  pay  in  the  British  Army  is 
far  higher  than  that  of  any  conscript  force,  but 
against  this  it  must  be  said  that,  so  far  as  the 
French  conscript  is  concerned,  the  Government  pro- 
vides in  kind  for  practically  all  his  necessities, 
leaving  the  total  of  his  pay — small  as  that  is — as  his 
own  pocket  money.  The  bread  ration,  for  instance, 
is  larger  in  the  French  than  in  the  British  Army, 
and  the  French  Government  provides,  free  of  cost, 
all  necessary  articles  for  a  varied  and  nutrient  diet. 
The  sergeants  in  the  French  Army  contribute  to 
a  slight  extent  toward  the  cost  of  their  messing, 
but  then  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  all  non- 
commissioned officers  of  the  French  Army  are  re- 
engaged men  on  a  considerably  higher  rate  of  pay 
than  that  allowed  to  a  conscript  during  his  first 
two  years.  Among  the  rank  and  file,  mess  books 
are  kept  for  the  companies  or  squadrons  of  each 
unit,  and  usually  these  mess  books  are  placed  in 
the  hands  of  corporals,  who  eat  with  the  men, 
and  thus  benefit   from  their  own  good  judgment 


136  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

in  the  matter  of  choosing  provisions  to  the  value 
allowed  by  the  mess  book,  and  equally  they  suffer 
for  their  own  mistakes. 

With  a  view  to  the  possible  disorganisation  under 
war  conditions  of  arrangements  for  cooking  food 
by  the  company  or  squadron,  the  French  soldier  is 
taught  and  encouraged  to  cook  and  prepare  his  own 
food  on  the  field.  During  the  manoeuvre  period, 
the  arrival  of  French  troops  in  camp  is  marked  by 
the  lighting  of  fires,  at  which  men  cook  their  own 
food,  and  officers  supervise  this  business  in  order 
to  make  certain  that  no  man  goes  to  sleep  for  the 
night  without  having  first  had  a  sufficiently  sus- 
taining meal.  Within  a  quarter  of  an  hour  of 
the  arrival  of  an  infantry  regiment  in  camp,  the 
kettles  are  boiling  and  the  coffee  is  made;  the 
slabs  of  compressed  soup,  which  form  a  feature  of 
the  culinary  service  of  the  army,  are  broken  up  and 
dissolved,  and  bread  and  meat  are  issued  to  form 
the  solid  part  of  the  day's  meal.  Motor-driven  vans 
travel  with  the  army,  filled  with  quarters  of  fresh 
meat  hung  in  dust-proof  compartments;  these  trav- 
elling meat  safes  form  a  recent  innovation,  and 
have  been  found  thoroughly  satisfactory  in  that 
they  increase  the  fresh  food  supplies  of  the  troops. 

A  point  worthy  of  note  in  connection  with  the 
arrangements  for  the  supply  of  food  is  that  in  the 


INTERNAL  ECONOMY  137 

French  Army  the  principal  meal  of  the  day  falls  at 
the  end  of  the  day's  work,  both  in  barracks  and  in 
camp.  In  the  British  service  the  principal  meal  is 
taken  at  midday,  with  the  result  that,  so  far  as 
official  meals  are  concerned,  the  soldier  gets  noth- 
ing but  a  light  tea  between  the  dinner  of  one  day 
and  the  breakfast  of  the  next,  and  he  has  to  buy 
his  own  supper  to  compensate  for  this.  In  the 
French  Army  men  are  provided  with  coffee  before 
turning  out  for  the  first  parade  in  the  morning; 
at  ten  o'clock  soup  is  served;  at  two  o'clock  or 
thereabouts,  according  to  the  nature  of  work  on 
which  men  are  engaged,  another  light  meal  is  pro- 
vided, and  then  with  the  end  of  the  day  comes  a 
two  or  three  course  meal  which  corresponds  in 
quantity  and  nutrient  value — though  not  in  the 
manner  of  its  cooking — to  the  midday  dinner  of  the 
British  soldier.  By  this  means  the  French  soldier 
is  relieved  of  the  necessity  of  buying  any  supper, 
and  his  official  rations  of  food  are,  in  the  majority 
of  cases,  amply  sufficient  for  his  needs  without  his 
having  recourse  to  his  own  pocket. 

Although,  as  has  been  stated,  the  mess  books  are 
controlled  by  corporals,  this  by  no  means  forms  the 
total  of  the  supervision  entailed  on  French  military 
cooking  and  provisions.  The  senior  officers  of  the 
regiment  are   especially   charged   with   the   super- 


138  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

vision  of  these  details  of  internal  economy;  the 
officer  of  the  week  is  a  frequent  visitor  of  the  cook- 
houses of  his  regiment,  and  surprise  visits  are  made 
to  the  dining-tables  of  the  men  in  order  to  make 
sure  that  no  cause  for  complaint  exists  with  regard 
to  the  quantity  or  quality  of  provisions  supplied. 
The  adjudants  also  are  concerned  in  the  efficiency 
of  the  cooks,  and  the  provision  of  proper  meals  for 
the  non-commissioned  officers,  while,  since  these 
latter  have  a  share  in  paying  for  the  goods  supplied, 
they  have  also  a  voice  in  matters  of  choice  and 
cookery.  On  the  whole,  bearing  in  mind  the 
quality  of  French  cookery  and  the  fact  that  that 
cookery  is  as  much  in  evidence  in  the  French  Army 
as  out  of  it,  it  may  be  said  that  the  French  soldier 
fares  rather  better  than  the  man  serving  in  the 
British  Army  in  this  all-important  matter  of  food 
and  its  preparation. 

In  other  matters  of  internal  economy,  officers 
manifest  an  unceasing  interest  in  the  well-being  and 
comfort  of  their  men.  The  canteens  of  the  French 
Army  are  under  the  direct  supervision  of  senior 
officers,  and  thus  such  supplies  as  men  may  pur- 
chase individually  in  the  way  of  food,  drink,  or 
cleaning  materials,  are  always  up  to  the  required 
standard  of  quality.  The  matter  of  laundrywork  is 
also  in  the  care  of  officers  of  the  various  regiments, 


INTERNAL  ECONOMY  139 

and  altogether  the  comfort  and  well-being  of  the 
men  are  matters  for  which  officers  are  held  respon- 
sible to  a  greater  extent  than  in  the  British  service, 
where,  with  regards  to  some  things,  departments 
rather  than  men  are  made  responsible. 

The  conduct  of  drill  and  routine,  directly  under 
the  supervision  of  the  commanding  officer  of  each 
regiment,  are  managed  differently  from  drill  and 
routine  in  the  British  service.  For  instance, 
British  soldiers  go  out  to  drill  for  an  hour,  and  at 
the  conclusion  of  that  hour,  whatever  has  happened, 
the  parade  is  dismissed;  the  French  squad  turns 
out  for  drill  nominally  for  an  hour — assuming 
that  as  the  period  taken  for  illustration — but  in 
reality  the  drill  lasts  until  the  superiors  are  satisfied 
that  the  men  have  done  what  they  set  out  to  do. 
Stereotype  is  not  compatible  with  the  methods  of 
the  French  Army,  but  efficiency  counts  before  set 
rules,  and  the  object  of  training  is  always  efficiency, 
without  regard  to  former  practices.  Slaves  to  cus- 
tom do  not  exist;  custom  itself  does  not  exist, 
except  in  so  far  as  it  is  essential  to  the  performance 
of  duties,  and  the  maintenance  of  efficiency. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  difference  in 
the  ways  of  two  armies,  French  and  English,  is 
rendered  necessary  by  the  basis  on  which  the 
armies  are  founded.    The  British  Army  is  based  on 


140  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

a  voluntary  system,  and  the  lowest  stated  period 
of  service  is  three  years.  The  French  Army  is 
based  on  conscription,  which  does  away  with  all 
idea  of  selection,  and  the  stated  period  during 
which  men  can  be  compelled  to  train  is  two  years 
only — or  rather  it  was  two  years  only  up  to  a  short 
time  before  the  army  changed  from  peace  strength 
and  conditions  to  a  war  footing.  Under  the  two 
years'  system,  men  must  be  kept  at  work  all  the 
time  in  order  to  teach  them  the  whole  of  their 
work;  drill  and  fatigues  alternate,  and  there  are 
but  short  intervals  between;  one  of  the  rules  of 
the  French  Army  is  that  the  conscript  shall  be  made 
to  work  all  the  time,  and  another  rule  that  must  be 
borne  in  mind  in  connection  with  this  is  that  each 
man  shall  be  provided  with  sufficient  food  of  a 
suitable  nature  to  enable  him  to  do  his  work,  at  no 
cost  to  himself. 

The  rules  of  the  army  provide  that  during  all 
manoeuvre  periods  conscripts  shall  endure  active 
service  conditions.  Pipeclay  and  polish  disappear, 
and  no  "parade  movements"  are  indulged  in.  There 
are  no  stage  effects,  and  a  cavalry  leader  who  on 
manoeuvres  indulged  his  men  in  a  charge  that  would 
not  be  really  useful  under  war  conditions  would  get 
a  severe  reprimand,  if  not  a  more  substantial  pun- 
ishment.   All  unnecessary  show  is  condemned,  and 


INTERNAL  ECONOMY  141 

the  French  Army  on  manoeuvres  is  made  to  un- 
derstand that  its  work  is  genuine  preparation  for 
the  rough  business  of  active  service.  Another  point 
worthy  of  note  is  that,  during  manoeuvre  periods, 
full  use  is  made  of  all  available  buildings  for  pur- 
poses of  sleep  and  shelter,  just  as  would  be  done 
in  time  of  war,  and  straw  is  used  to  supplement  the 
coverings  carried,  when  the  nights  are  cold.  The 
bulky  and  ungainly-looking  great-coat  of  the  French 
soldier  is  practically  sufficient  for  covering  when  in 
camp,  since  it  is  extremely  warm,  and  is  manu- 
factured from  a  porous  class  of  material  which 
swells  and  becomes  waterproof  in  even  a  slight 
shower.  It  has  been  long  since  realised  in  the 
French  Army  that  individual  comfort  makes  for 
collective  efficiency,  and,  though  discipline  is  ex- 
ceedingly strict,  yet  this  is  counterbalanced  by  the 
way  in  which  the  well-being  of  the  men  is  studied. 
To  each  regiment  two  doctors  are  allotted,  and 
the  medical  service  of  the  French  Army  as  a  whole, 
though  only  a  modern  growth,  is  equal  to  that  of 
any  other  continental  nation.  The  French  Red 
Cross  Society  is  but  little  more  than  forty  years 
old,  but  the  facility  with  which  the  nation  as  a 
whole,  adopts  and  adapts  all  things  to  its  use,  has 
been  well  manifested  here,  for  the  Red  Cross  service 
of   the  French  Army  gives  place  to  none  in  the 


142  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

matter  of  efficiency.  In  such  a  time  as  the  present, 
when  every  resource  of  the  nation  is  strained  in 
coping  with  a  ruthless  invader,  it  is  only  to  be  ex- 
pected that  medical  provision  will  at  times  be  found 
hardly  or  only  just  adequate  for  unprecedented 
demands,  but  the  medical  service  for  the  army  has 
risen  to  the  occasion  in  just  as  heroic  fashion  as  has 
the  nation  as  a  whole. 

In  the  matter  of  making  each  regiment  as  self- 
contained  as  possible,  the  French  Army  is  about 
equal  with  the  British.  In  a  French  regiment, 
signallers,  scouts,  and  others  are  trained  from  the 
ranks  of  the  regiment  itself  to  undertake  the  spe- 
cial duties  imposed  on  each  of  these  branches  of 
military  activity.  In  the  matter  of  scouting,  and 
in  such  things  as  taking  cover,  trench-digging,  the 
use  of  extended  formations,  etc.,  the  French  Army 
has  benefited  largely  by  the  British  war  in  South 
Africa,  of  which  the  lessons  were  studied  quite  as 
keenly  as  in  the  British  Army  itself,  and  the  train- 
ing of  men  was  modified  on  experience  thus  gained 
by  others.  Again,  French  officers  attached  to  the 
Russian  and  Japanese  staff  in  the  Russo-Japanese 
war  brought  back  much  practical  knowledge  which 
was  applied  in  their  own  army,  more  especially  with 
regard  to  fortifications,  defensive  positions,  siege 
warfare,  and  the  work  of  armies  in  close  contact 


INTERNAL  ECONOMY  143 

and  in  large  masses.  It  may  be  said  as  a  whole, 
with  regard  to  the  working  of  the  army,  that 
France  has  never  hesitated  to  adapt  the  lessons 
taught  by  others  to  her  own  use,  while  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  lessons  learned  from  the 
failure  of  such  armies  as  Napoleon  the  futile  forced 
into  action  in  1870  have  been  taken  to  heart  and 
applied,  with  a  view  to  fitness  for  the  struggle 
that  is  not  yet  ended. 


CHAPTER   XII 
SOME   INCIDENTALS 

THE  subject  of  disciplinary  battalions  is  not  a 
pleasant  one  in  the  opinion  of  the  French 
soldier,  but  the  formation  of  such  battalions  is  a 
necessity  in  the  conscript  army  of  a  nation  which 
demands  military  service  of  all  its  citizens.  For 
in  such  an  army  the  criminal  classes  and  bad  char- 
acters are  included  with  the  rest,  and,  if  they  do 
not  conform  to  military  rules  in  a  better  way  than 
they  submit  to  the  ordinary  restrictions  imposed 
on  any  law-abiding  civil  community,  then  some 
form  of  discipline  must  be  adopted  in  order  to 
coerce  them.  When  the  regimental  authorities  of 
any  unit  in  the  French  Army  have  ascertained,  by 
the  repeated  application  of  ordinary  corrective 
methods,  that  it  is  impossible  to  make  an  efficient 
soldier  of  any  man  in  the  unit  in  question,  the  man 
concerned  is  taken  before  the  conseil  de  discipline, 
which  has  power  to  recommend  that  he  should  be 
sent  to  service  in  the  disciplinary  battalion  stationed 
in  Algeria. 

144 


SOME  INCIDENTALS  145 

The  conseil  consists  of  a  major  as  president, 
together  with  the  two  senior  captains  and  two 
senior  lieutenants  of  the  regiment  to  which  the  man 
belongs,  exclusive  of  his  own  squadron  or  com- 
pany officer.  The  case  against  the  man  is  presented 
by  the  senior  officer  of  the  squadron  or  company 
to  which  the  man  belongs;  this  evidence  for  the 
prosecution  having  been  taken,  the  prosecuting  of- 
ficer retires,  and  the  accused  man  is  brought  in  to 
make  his  defence.  Then  the  court,  after  due  de- 
liberation, makes  its  report,  recommending  either 
that  the  man  shall  be  given  another  chance  in  the 
regiment,  or  sent  to  a  disciplinary  battalion.  The 
report  is  then  sent  to  the  colonel  of  the  regiment, 
who  either  endorses  or  rejects  the  decision  of  the 
court.  Should  his  decision  be  favourable  to  the 
accused,  the  man  is  given  another  chance,  but  if, 
on  the  other  hand,  he  endorses  the  recommendation 
of  the  court,  the  sanction  of  the  general  com- 
manding the  station  is  required  in  order  to  com- 
plete the  proceedings.  With  this  sanction  the 
offender  is  sent  to  Algeria,  where  the  disciplinary 
battalions  are  known  as  "Biribi"  and  are  stationed 
on  the  most  advanced  posts  of  this  French  colony. 
Owing  to  their  shaven  heads,  the  men  in  these 
battalions  are  known  as  tcfcs  dcs  vcaiix,  and  their 
release   from  this    form  of  service  is  entirely  de- 


146  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

pendent  on  their  own  conduct.  In  one  historic  case, 
the  son  of  a  general  served  four  years  as  a  private 
in  one  of  these  battalions,  which  include,  in  addi- 
tion to  men  of  a  distinctively  criminal  type,  a  num- 
ber of  social  wrecks.  A  disciplinary  battalion  is  a 
veritable  lost  legion. 

Some  years  ago  one  of  these  battalions  was  on 
the  march  from  Biskra  in  Southern  Algeria,  and 
on  the  march  one  unscrupulous  ruffian,  who  cher- 
ished a  grudge  against  the  major  commanding,  fell 
back  to  the  rear  of  the  column,  pretending  to  be 
ill.  He  feigned  greater  and  yet  greater  exhaustion, 
and  at  last  sat  down  as  if  unable  to  march  further. 
The  major  came  up  and  inquired  kindly  what  was 
the  matter,  and  on  the  soldier  stating  that  he  felt 
too  exhausted  to  march,  the  major  handed  him  a 
brandy  flask,  from  which  the  man  took  a  drink. 
As  the  major  was  occupied  in  returning  the  flask 
to  his  saddle  wallet,  the  soldier  fired  his  rifle  at 
him,  but  fortunately  missed,  owing  to  the  swerving 
of  the  officer's  horse.  At  this  the  major  realised  with 
what  a  dangerous  class  of  man  he  had  to  deal,  and, 
drawing  his  revolver,  he  blew  the  man's  brains  out. 
Some  time  later  another  officer  of  the  same  bat- 
talion found  a  stone  placed  on  the  spot  commem- 
orating the  memory  of  the  soldier  criminal ;  the 
stone  was  removed,  but  was  replaced;  six  times  in 


SOME  INCIDENTALS  147 

succession  this  was  done,  and  yet  it  was  never  ascer- 
tained who  was  responsible  for  cutting  inscriptions 
on  the  stones,  or  placing  them  there. 

A  very  common  mistake  is  made  in  confusing 
the  disciplinary  battalions  of  the  Algerian  frontier 
with  the  world-famous  Foreign  Legion  of  the 
French  Army,  and  consequently  the  Foreign  Legion 
has  gained  an  undeserved  reputation  for  iron  dis- 
cipline and  unduly  harsh  treatment  of  its  men. 
The  chief  disabilities  attendant  on  service  in  the 
Foreign  Legion  consist  in  periods  of  service  in  some 
of  the  peculiarly  unhealthy  localities  included  in 
French  colonial  possessions.  The  Foreign  Legion 
suffered  more  than  any  other  unit  of  the  French 
service  during  its  period  of  active  service  in  French 
Cochin-China,  while  inland  in  Algeria  its  members 
are  subjected  to  a  peculiarly  trying  climate,  and  in 
other  parts  of  French  Africa  the  Foreign  Legion 
does  duty  in  company  with  a  considerable  amount 
of  epidemic  disease. 

Service  in  the  Foreign  Legion  is,  of  course,  a 
voluntary  matter,  and  the  fact  that  the  Legion  is 
always  up  to  strength  is  sufficient  evidence  of 
methods  adopted  with  regard  to  the  discipline  of 
the  men  and  the  treatment  accorded  to  them.  For, 
although  the  Legion  itself  is  famous,  its  individual 
members  are  not,  and  it  cannot  be  said  to  offer  any 


148.  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

conspicuous  attractions  to  intending  candidates  for 
admission.  It  is  probably  the  most  cosmopolitan 
body  of  men  in  any  part  of  the  world,  and  the 
formation  of  such  a  body,  in  which  the  distinctions 
of  nationality  are  abolished,  is  peculiar  to  the 
French  nation.  The  Legion  includes  natives  of 
every  country  populated  by  the  Caucasian  races, 
and  especially  of  Italian,  German,  English,  and 
French  citizens.  It  is  an  agglomeration  of  adven- 
turers, of  whom  the  largest  proportion  desire  only 
obscurity;  it  may  be  said  that  the  Legion  is  made 
up  of  the  bad  bargains  of  half  a  world,  but  it  is 
good  fighting  material,  for  all  that.  Ouida  has 
drawn  a  highly  coloured  picture  of  service  in  the 
Foreign  Legion  in  the  book  "Under  Two  Flags," 
but  this  picture  consists  mainly  of  romance  with 
the  soldiering  left  out,  while  actual  service  with  the 
Legion  involves  soldiering  with  the  romance  left 
out.  Hard  soldiering,  in  various  climates  and 
under  many  conditions;  in  company  with  various 
kinds  of  men,  of  whom  one  never  asks  details  of 
past  history;  one  is  accepted  in  the  Legion  for  pres- 
ent soldierly  qualities,  and  by  tacit  agreement  the 
past  is  given  the  place  allotted  to  most  sleeping 
dogs.  The  period  of  service  in  the  Legion  has  the 
merit  of  being  intensely  interesting  to  any  man 
who,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  is  a  student  of 


SOME  INCIDENTALS  149 

the  psychology  of  his  fellows.  The  Legion  itself 
affords  instances  of  devotion  and  self-denial  as 
heroic  as  any  that  Ouida  has  penned,  but  it  may 
be  said  here  with  regard  not  only  to  the  Foreign 
Legion,  but  to  all  the  armies  of  all  the  world,  that 
such  systematic  persecution  on  the  part  of  an  indi- 
vidual officer  toward  any  individual  man  as  Ouida 
has  pictured  in  "Under  Two  Flags"  is  a  rank  impos- 
sibility. The  system  of  decentralisation  of  com- 
mand, of  interlinking  authority  and  supervision, 
and  of  central  control  by  heads  of  units,  renders 
impossible  the  persistent  gratification  of  spite  by 
an  individual  officer  against  an  individual  soldier. 

In  this  connection,  stories  of  persecution  of  in- 
dividuals who  have  done  nothing  to  merit  the 
punishment  inflicted  on  them,  especially  in  military 
service,  should  always  be  accepted  with  the  pro- 
verbial grain  of  salt.  For  there  is  never  smoke 
without  fire,  and  the  man  who  is  unpopular  with 
all  his  officers  and  non-commissioned  officers  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  incur  a  succession  of  punish- 
ments is  usually  deserving  of  all  that  he  gets. 
Humanity  is  so  constituted  that  sympathy  almost 
invariably  goes  to  the  individual  who  is  at  variance 
with  the  mass,  and  in  the  exercise  of  sympathy  one 
is  apt  to  overlook  the  qualities  and  characteristics 
of  the  object  on  which  it  is  bestowed.     We  hear. 


I50  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

usually,  the  story  of  the  man  who  considers  himself 
aggrieved  or  unjustly  punished,  and,  without 
listening  to  the  other  side  of  the  case,  we  immedi- 
ately conclude  that  his  statements  are  correct  in 
all  their  details.  As  a  rule,  the  man  who  thus 
attempts  to  secure  a  reversal  of  the  decision  against 
him  has  some  inherent  quality  which  makes  for 
unpopularity.  He  is  inclined  to  curry  favour, 
which  renders  him  a  marked  man  among  his  com- 
rades, or  he  commits  acts  against  discipline  in  such 
a  way  that,  although  it  is  practically  certain  that 
he  is  the  offender,  the  evidence  against  him  is  in- 
sufficient to  warrant  punishment.  These  and  other 
characteristics  of  the  man  concerned  bring  heavy 
punishment  on  him  when  is  finally  caught,  and, 
although  the  punishment  is  perfectly  just,  the  of- 
fender immediately  whines  over  it  in  such  a  clever 
way  that  sympathising  outsiders  accord  him  far 
more  consideration  than  he  deserves,  and  consider 
that  his  just  judges  have  been  inhuman  brutes, 
though  they  merely  fulfilled  their  duty.  The  of- 
fender makes  sufficient  fuss  to  be  heard,  but  the 
individual  or  body  of  individuals  who  ordered  his 
punishment  are  not  able  to  advertise  themselves 
in  similar  fashion,  and  thus  a  one-sided  view  is 
taken. 

To  return  to  the  Foreign  Legion,  it  may  be  said 


SOME  INCIDENTALS  151 

that  any  attempt  to  quote  incidents  typical  of  its 
members  and  their  ways  would  be  quite  useless, 
for  there  is  in  the  Legion  sufficient  material  to 
furnish  all  the  novelists  of  this  and  the  next  cen- 
tury with  plots  to  keep  them  busy.  To  outward 
seeming  the  soldiers  of  the  Foreign  Legion  are 
average  men,  engaged  in  average  military  duties, 
and  it  is  not  until  definite  contact  with  them  has 
been  established  that  any  realisation  of  their  excep- 
tional qualities  and  curious  defects  can  be  obtained. 
As  is  well  known,  the  Legion  includes  every  class 
of  adventurers  from  men  of  royal  blood  and  noble- 
men of  the  highest  rank  downward,  and  many  an 
assumed  name  conceals  a  story  which  would  be 
worth  untold  gold  in  Fleet  Street,  or  in  the  journal- 
istic equivalent  of  Fleet  Street  in  some  other 
European  capital. 

It  is  not  generally  realised  in  this  country  that 
the  extent  of  the  French  colonies  is  such  as  to 
necessitate  the  maintenance  of  a  considerable  body 
of  colonial  troops.  With  the  exception  of  the  troops 
stationed  in  Algeria  and  Tunis,  service  in  the 
French  colonies  is  a  voluntary  matter;  the  natives 
of  the  various  French  dependencies  have  been  in- 
duced to  accept  military  service  on  a  voluntary  basis 
to  a  considerable  extent.  In  addition  to  the  famous 
Algerian  Turcos,  battalions  of   Senegalese  troops 


152  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

have  been  formed  with  excellent  results;  it  has 
been  found  that  the  natives  of  this  dependency  make 
good  soldiers,  particularly  suited  to  service  in  the 
interior  of  Africa,  owing  to  their  immunity  from 
diseases  which  render  tracts  of  country  almost  im- 
penetrable to  white  troops.  The  numbers  of  native 
colonial  troops  given  in  Chapter  I  are  constantly 
and  steadily  increasing,  for,  in  addition  to  making 
good  soldiers,  the  natives  of  French  dependencies 
come  forward  readily  and  in  increasing  numbers 
to  recruiting  centres. 

As  regards  the  regular  army,  matters  have  been 
much  better  with  reference  to  discipline  and  pun- 
ishment since  the  system  which  permitted  of  volon- 
taires  was  abolished.  The  volontaires  were  men 
who,  on  payment  of  a  certain  sum  to  the  State,  were 
permitted  to  compress  their  military  training  into 
the  space  of  one  year.  The  payment  of  this  sum 
was  supposed  to  guarantee  a  certain  amount  of 
social  standing  in  civil  life,  and  the  volontaires  were 
always  regarded  theoretically  as  a  possible  source 
from  which  to  promote  officers  in  case  of  need. 
In  practice,  however,  the  experiment  worked  out 
quite  differently.  The  volontaires  were  found  to 
be  men  of  varying  grades  in  life,  with  varying  de- 
grees of  education,  and  equally  varying  mental 
qualities.     They  were  extremely  unpopular  among 


SOME  INCIDENTALS  153 

the  ordinary  conscript  rank  and  file,  on  whom 
many  of  them  affected  to  look  down  as  inferior 
beings.  The  more  unscrupulous  of  them  would 
attempt  to  evade  duty  by  bribing  non-commissioned 
officers,  while  those  who  were  unable  to  compass 
bribery  railed  against  the  unequal  treatment  meted 
out  to  them  in  comparison  with  that  enjoyed  by 
their  comrades.  Their  one  year  of  training  was 
insufficient  to  make  practical  soldiers  out  of  the  raw 
material  submitted,  and  altogether  it  was  a  good 
thing  for  France  when  the  whole  system  was  swept 
away,  and,  consistently  with  the  Republican  prin- 
ciple, all  citizens  were  regarded  as  equal  under  the 
drill  instructor.  The  volontaire  system  was  no 
more  and  no  less  than  favouritism  on  the  part  of 
the  State. 

It  must  not  be  overlooked  that,  although  the 
initial  period  of  service  in  the  French  Army  is 
compulsory,  quite  a  large  percentage  of  the  men 
remain  in  the  Army  of  their  own  free  will  at  the 
end  of  the  two  compulsory  years.  For  such  as 
elect  to  make  a  career  of  the  Army  in  this  fashion, 
there  is  a  materially  increased  rate  of  pay,  ranging 
from  an  approximate  equivalent  of  8d.  a  day  up- 
wards, with  a  pension,  and  usually  with  Govern- 
ment employment  if  desired,  after  only  fifteen 
years  of  service.  These  rc-engagcs  very  seldom 
stay  down  in  the  ranks,  but  form  the  chief  source 


154  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

from  which  non-commissioned  officers  are  obtained. 
Kipling's  phrase  with  regard  to  British  non-com- 
missioned officers  is  equally  applicable  to  the  Army 
of  the  Republic,  for  the  non-commissioned  officer 
is  the  backbone  of  the  French  Army  just  as  surely 
as  the  officer  is  its  brains.  The  sergeant-major 
of  a  squadron,  or  the  French  equivalent  of  a 
British  infantry  colour-sergeant  in  a  company,  is 
the  right  hand  of  the  captain  commanding,  adviser 
as  well  as  intermediary  between  officers  and  men. 
The  sergeant  in  charge  of  a  peloton  or  troop  is  not 
only  the  principal  instructor  with  whom  the  men 
of  the  troop  have  to  deal,  but  is  also  counsellor 
and  guide  to  the  young  lieutenant  who  comes 
straight  from  a  military  school  to  take  up  his  com- 
mission, and  needs  experience  of  the  ways  of  men 
in  addition  to  the  theoretical  knowledge  he  has 
already  gained.  The  corporal,  who  does  not  hold 
non-commissioned  rank  as  in  the  British  Army,  and 
counts  his  position  as  an  appointment  rather  than  a 
definite  promotion,  forms  a  sort  of  go-between  for 
men  and  sergeants,  imparting  individual  instruc- 
tion to  the  men,  and  supervising  their  welfare  in 
the  barrack  room,  while  himself  qualifying  for  the 
rank  of  sergeant.  The  revolutionary  proposal  to 
abolish  corporals  in  the  French  Army  rose  out  of 
an  idea  that  men  resented  being  governed  by  one 


SOME  INCIDENTALS  155 

who  had  formerly  been  a  comrade  with  them,  but 
could  no  longer  be  so  regarded  after  he  had  as- 
sumed authority  over  them.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
the  proposal  will  never  be  acted  on,  for  the  prin- 
ciple of  entrusting  matters  of  individual  tuition  and 
supervision  to  the  old  soldiers  takes  no  account  of 
personal  worth  or  fitness  for  command. 

The  life  which  the  conscript  must  lead  during 
his  two  years  of  service  is  determined  largely  by 
the  garrison  to  which  he  is  drafted.  Life  in  a 
sunny  and  sleepy  garrison  town  in  the  wine-grow- 
ing district  of  the  south  is — granted  reasonable 
military  conditions — quite  ideal;  the  monotony 
of  the  life  spent  in  drill  in  a  frontier  fort  tends 
to  make  the  conscript  bad-tempered,  while  men 
stationed  among  the  French  hills  of  the  south  and 
eastern  frontiers  gain  most  in  the  way  of  physical 
fitness,  and  also,  in  their  work  of  making  new 
roads,  clearing  passes,  constructing  frontier  obstruc- 
tions, ascertaining  distances,  and  carrying  the 
heavy  loads  incidental  to  their  work  from  point 
to  point,  acquire  a  certain  quality  of  mental  celerity 
of  which  men  stationed  in  the  sunny  garrison 
towns  of  the  south  go  free.  But  the  various  attrac- 
tions and  drawbacks  of  the  twenty  great  garrison 
towns,  together  with  their  situation  and  special 
characteristics,  are  sufficient  to  merit  separate  con- 
sideration. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

THE  GREAT  GARRISON  TOWNS  OF 
FRANCE 

PARIS,  as  capital  of  the  Republic,  first  merits 
consideration  among  the  great  garrison  towns 
of  France.  It  has  the  most  extensive  system  of 
fortifications  in  the  world,  and  has  had  the  doubt- 
ful privilege  of  having  undergone  more  sieges,  burn- 
ings, and  other  military  experiments  than  most 
large  cities  can  boast  or  mourn.  The  inner  line 
of  fortifications  was  planned  as  far  back  as  1840, 
with  a  total  measurement  of  22^  miles,  but  after 
the  war  of  1870  two  main  lines  of  detached  forts 
were  erected  in  addition  to  those  already  in  exist- 
ence, which  formed  the  skeleton  on  which  the  more 
modern  plan  is  built.  The  older  forts  are  those  of 
St.  Denis,  Aubervilliers,  Romainville,  Noisy,  Resny, 
Nogent,  Vincennes,  Ivry,  Bicetre,  Montrouge, 
Vanves,  Issy,  and  Mont  Valerien ;  the  new  forts 
which  completed  the  scheme  are  those  of  Palaiseau, 
Villeras,  Buc,  and  St.  Cyr,  which  form  the  Ver- 
sailles portion  of  the  scheme,  and  Marly,  St.  Jamme, 

156 


GARRISON  TOWNS  OF  FRANCE        157 

and  Aidremont,  round  St.  Germain.  On  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  Seine  are  situated  forts  Cor- 
meillers,  Domont,  Montlignon,  Montmorency, 
ficouen,  Stains,  Vau jours,  Villiers,  and  Villeneuve 
St.  Georges.  The  Chatillon  fort  occupies  a  position 
between  the  two  lines,  and  is  placed  on  the  site 
whence  German  batteries  bombarded  Paris  during 
the  siege  of  1871,  forming  a  proof  of  the  wisdom 
displayed  in  the  German  choice  of  position.  The 
double  line  of  forts  thus  disposed  renders  Paris  as 
nearly  impregnable  to  the  attack  of  an  enemy  as  is 
possible  under  modern  military  conditions. 

The  total  number  of  troops  garrisoned  in  Paris 
in  normal  times  is  about  25,000,  and  there  are  also 
about  4500  gendarmerie.  Paris  in  itself  ranks  as  a 
separate  military  district  of  the  Republic,  and  is 
noteworthy  as  being  the  head-quarters  of  the  Re- 
publican Guard,  practically  the  only  body  of  picked 
men  in  the  French  military  system,  and  analogous 
with  the  Guards'  Brigade  of  the  British  Army. 

Amiens,  the  head-quarters  of  the  2nd  Army 
Corps,  is  a  city  of  nearly  100,000  inhabitants,  con- 
taining a  cathedral  which  is  generally  considered 
the  finest  existing  example  of  Gothic  architecture. 
Situated  eighty-one  miles  north  of  Paris,  it  is  one  of 
the  principal  points  of  concentration  for  troops  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  northern   frontier,   and   forms 


158  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

head-quarters  for  the  departments  of  Aisne,  Oise, 
Somme,  and  parts  of  Seine-et-Oise  and  Seine.  Al- 
though head-quarters  of  an  Army  Corps,  Amiens 
does  not  rank  among  the  principal  fortified  posts 
of  France. 

Besangon,  situated  243  miles  south-east  of  Paris, 
ranks  as  a  first-class  fortress,  and  is  the  head- 
quarters of  the  7th  Army  Corps.  It  is  the  centre 
of  military  administration  for  the  departments  of 
Ain,  Doubs,  Haute-Marne,  Haute-Saone,  Jura, 
Belfort,  and  part  of  Rhone.  It  is  an  ancient  town 
containing  Roman  remains  dating  from  the  second 
century  of  the  Christian  era,  including  an  amphi- 
theatre and  triumphal  arch.  Situated  on  the  main 
line  of  rail  from  Dijon  to  Belfort,  Besangon  is  one 
of  the  centres  of  mobilisation  for  the  defence  of  the 
eastern  frontier,  and  it  is  from  this  point  that  a 
good  many  of  the  first  line  of  troops  were  drafted 
to  the  area  of  recent  conflict  in  Alsace  and  Lorraine. 
In  itself  Besangon  is  a  quiet  and  pleasant  city  on 
a  peninsula  stretching  out  from  the  left  bank  of  the 
river  Doubs,  and  it  has  a  reputation  as  the  principal 
watch-making  centre  of  France. 

Bordeaux,  the  metropolis  of  south-western 
France,  is  360  miles  distant  from  Paris  by  rail,  and 
forms  the  head-quarters  of  the  i8th  Army  Corps. 
As  one  of  the  finest  cities  of  France,  and  a  coastal 


GARRISON  TOWNS  OF  FRANCE        159 

town,  it  is  a  popular  station  among  the  troops,  and 
serves  as  head-quarters  for  the  departments  of 
Charente-Inferieure,  Gironde,  Landes,  Basses- 
Pyrenees,  and  Hautes-Pyrenees.  The  miHtary  his- 
tory of  Bordeaux  dates  back  to  very  ancient  times, 
for  it  was  sacked  successively  by  Vandals,  Visi- 
goths, Franks,  and  Norsemen,  and  attained  to  a 
period  of  peace  only  at  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century.  As  centre  of  one  of  the  principal  wine- 
growing districts  of  France,  it  is  as  near  climatic 
perfection  as  the  conscript  can  expect  to  get,  though 
those  who  serve  in  the  department  of  Hautes- 
Pyrenees  undergo  more  rigorous  conditions  of 
weather.  In  addition  to  being  a  port  of  departure 
for  trans-Atlantic  traffic,  Bordeaux  is  a  popular 
pleasure  resort,  and  thus  plenty  of  amusements  are 
within  reach  of  the  troops  serving  at  head-quarters. 
Bourges,  the  head-quarters  of  the  8th  Army 
Corps,  is  one  of  the  principal  military  stations  of 
France,  although  not  in  itself  a  town  of  very 
great  importance.  Its  training  establishments  rank 
very  highly  in  the  military  life  of  the  nation,  in- 
cluding as  they  do  a  national  cannon  foundry,  very 
extensive  engineering  works,  and  schools  of  artil- 
lery and  pyrotechnics  for  the  training  of  officers. 
Bourges  is  head-quarters  for  the  departments  of 
Cher,  Cote-d'Or,  Nievre,  Saone-et-Loire,  and  part 


i6o  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

of  the  department  of  Rhone.  It  is  one  of  the  chief 
arsenals  of  the  Republic,  and  occupies  a  position 
near  the  geographical  centre  of  France.  The  town 
dates  back  to  Roman  time,  and  had  the  doubtful 
distinction  of  being  destroyed  by  Julius  Caesar,  at 
about  the  time  of  his  invasion  of  Britain. 

Chalons-sur-Marne  has  been  a  centre  of  conflict 
in  most  of  the  wars  in  which  France  has  been 
engaged  from  very  early  times.  It  was  destroyed 
by  the  Vandals,  by  Attila  and  his  ruthless  Huns, 
and  by  the  Burgundians  in  mediaeval  times,  and 
is  situated  on  a  plain  which  has  always  been  con- 
sidered an  ideal  battlefield,  and  has  served  that 
purpose  throughout  the  centuries  up  to  the  present 
day.  It  is  the  head-quarters  of  the  6th  Army 
Corps,  and  is  the  military  centre  for  the  depart- 
ments of  Ardennes,  Aubes,  Meurthe-et-Moselle, 
Marne,  Meuse,  and  Vosges.  It  is  107  miles  east  of 
Paris  by  rail,  and  is  one  of  the  principal  brewing 
centres  of  France,  the  wine  trade  in  which  it  used 
to  be  engaged  having  gone  northward  to  Rheims. 
In  the  scheme  under  which  the  French  Army  is 
constituted,  Chalons  is  one  of  the  centres  for  early 
mobilisation  of  troops  of  the  first  line  with  a  view 
to  the  defence  of  the  north-eastern  frontier. 

Clermont-Ferrand  is  head-quarters  for  the  de- 
partments of  Loire,   Haute-Loire,  Allier,   Cantal, 


GARRISON  TOWNS  OF  FRANCE        i6i 

Puy-de-D6me,  and  part  of  the  department  of 
Rhone.  It  is  the  head-quarters  of  the  13th  Army- 
Corps,  and  is  a  town  of  about  55,000  inhabitants, 
situated  260  miles  directly  south  of  Paris  by  rail. 
It  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  first  centres  of 
systematic  mobilisation  of  which  France  affords 
historical  record,  for  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury Peter  the  Hermit  preached  the  first  Crusade  in 
the  church  of  Notre  Dame  at  Clermont-Ferrand. 

Grenoble,  dominated  by  Mont  Rachais,  a  hill  ris- 
ing nearly  3500  feet  above  sea-level,  ranks  as  a 
first-class  fortress,  and  is  the  military  centre  for 
the  departments  of  Hautes-Alpes,  Drome,  Isere, 
Savoie,  Haute-Savoie,  and  part  of  the  department 
of  Rhone.  It  is  the  head-quarters  of  the  14th 
Army  Corps,  and  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of 
French  cities.  In  consequence  of  this  it  is  a  well 
patronised  tourist  centre,  and  as  such  is  a  popular 
station  among  the  conscripts. 

Le  Mans,  the  military  centre  for  the  departments 
of  Eure-et-Loire,  Orne,  Mayenne,  Sarthe,  and 
parts  of  the  departments  of  Seine-et-Rise  and 
Seine,  is  situated  131  miles  W.S.W.  from  Paris  by 
rail,  and  has  historical  associations  with  Richard 
Coeur  de  Lion  and  Henry  II  of  England,  having 
been  the  birthplace  of  the  latter.  It  is  the  head- 
quarters of  the  4th  Array  Corps,  and  has  a  popula- 


i62  THE  FRENCH  ARMY] 

tion  of  about  65,000,  including  the  garrison  of 
about  5500.  It  was  a  walled  city  of  the  Roman 
Empire  in  the  third  century,  and  has  undergone 
sieges  by  the  dozen  from  mediaeval  times  onward. 
It  was  one  of  the  centres  of  conflict  in  the  interne- 
cine strife  between  Bendean  and  Republican  troops 
at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  while  in  1870  it  was 
the  scene  of  a  French  defeat.  Its  cathedral  con- 
tains the  tomb  of  an  English  queen.  Lion-hearted 
Richard's  consort,  and  the  town  is  one  of  great  his- 
toric interest. 

Lille,  the  military  centre  for  the  departments  of 
Nord  and  Pas-de-Calais,  is  the  head-quarters  of  the 
1st  Army  Corps,  and  is  in  the  centre  of  one  of  the 
most  thickly  populated  manufacturing  districts  of 
France.  It  is  situated  153  miles  north  of  Paris,  and 
up  to  a  few  years  ago  ranked  as  a  first-class  fortress 
town,  but,  on  account  of  its  great  commercial  im- 
portance, and  the  manufacturing  character  of  the 
district  in  which  it  is  situated,  it  was  decided  that 
Lille  should  be  regarded  as  an  open  town,  and  not 
subject  to  bombardment.  The  nature  of  the  coun- 
try in  which  Lille  is  situated  and  the  density  of 
population  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  it 
forms  a  military  centre  for  two  departments  only, 
instead  of  for  four  or  five,  as  in  the  case  of  other 
head-quarters  garrison  towns.     The  old  fortifica- 


GARRISON  TOWNS  OF  FRANCE       163 

tions  of  Lille  have  been  converted  into  boulevards; 
under  the  old  scheme  of  defence  the  works  were  so 
constructed  that  large  areas  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
citadel  could  be  placed  under  water,  in  case  of 
attack.  As  French  cities  go,  Lille  is  comparatively 
modern,  dating  back  only  to  a.d.  1030,  when  Count 
Baldwin  IV  walled  in  the  village  from  which  the 
present  prosperous  town  of  nearly  200,000  inhabi- 
tants has  sprung. 

Limoges,  the  military  centre  for  the  departments 
of  Charente,  Correze,  Creuse,  Dordogne,  and 
Haute- Vienne,  is  situated  about  250  miles  S.S.W. 
of  Paris  by  rail.  It  is  the  head-quarters  of  the 
I2th  Army  Corps,  and  even  at  the  time  of  the  Ro- 
man conquest  was  a  place  of  importance,  having 
contributed  10,000  men  to  the  defence  of  Alesia 
against  the  Roman  invasion.  During  the  Hundred 
Years'  War  it  sustained  alternate  sieges  by  French 
and  English,  and  from  the  time  of  John  of  England 
to  that  of  the  Black  Prince  it  was  under  threat  to 
fire  and  sword,  to  which  the  Black  Prince  gave  it 
up  after  taking  the  town  by  assault.  Remains  of  a 
Roman  fountain  and  amphitheatre  still  exist  in  the 
town,  of  which  the  present  population  is  about 
85,000. 

Marseilles  is  the  military  centre  for  the  depart- 
ments   of    Basses-Alpes,    Alpes-Maritimes,    Corse, 


i64  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

Vaucluse,  Bouches-du-Rhone,  Card,  Var,  and 
Ardeche.  It  is  the  head-quarters  of  the  15th  Army 
Corps,  and  is  a  naval  station  as  well.  It  has  been 
a  place  of  commercial  importance  from  the  earliest 
days,  and,  situated  as  it  is  in  one  of  the  healthiest 
districts  of  France,  as  well  as  being  on  the  coast, 
it  forms  an  ideal  military  station.  In  former  times 
it  was  subject  to  epidemic  diseases  on  account  of 
the  sub-tropical  nature  of  the  climate,  but  modern 
methods  of  sanitation  have  neutralised  this  draw- 
back, and  Marseilles  is  now  as  pleasant  a  place  as 
any  that  a  conscript  can  hope  for  in  order  to  under- 
go his  term  of  service.  It  is  the  principal  port  of 
France,  and  as  such  is  strongly  fortified,  but  its 
fortifications  belong  to  the  naval  administration  of 
the  Republic.  Historically,  Marseilles  dates  back 
to  the  year  600  B.C.,  when  the  Greeks  established 
a  colony  here.  It  passed  to  Roman  rule  at  the  time 
of  the  invasion  of  Gaul  and  became  connected  with, 
among  other  notable  Romans,  Petronius,  the  ar- 
biter of  elegance  at  Nero's  court.  Throughout  the 
Middle  Ages  Marseilles  enjoyed  a  semi-independ- 
ence, and  it  has  always  played  a  prominent  part 
in  the  history  of  the  Mediterranean  sea-board. 

Montpellier,  the  head-quarters  of  the  i6th  Army 
Corps,  is  the  military  centre  for  the  departments 
of   Aude,   Aveyron,    Herault,    Lozere,    Tarn,   and 


GARRISON  TOWNS  OF  FRANCE        165 

Pyrenees-Orientales.  It  is  about  480  miles  south 
of  Paris,  and  about  seven  miles  distant  from  the 
Mediterranean,  from  which  it  is  divided  by  the 
lagoons  of  Perols  and  I'Arnel.  The  town  is  of  com- 
paratively late  formation  as  towns  go  in  France, 
having  become  a  place  of  note  only  in  the  eighth 
century.  It  is  a  wine  and  brandy  centre,  and  is 
also  engaged  in  silk  works,  and,  owing  to  its  situa- 
tion, enjoys  a  congenial  climate.  The  population 
is  upwards  of  80,000. 

Nantes,  the  head-quarters  of  the  nth  Army 
Corps,  is  known  as  the  most  populous  town  of 
Brittany,  and  is  the  military  centre  for  the  depart- 
ments of  Finistere,  Loire-Inferieure,  Morbihan,  and 
Vendee.  It  is  situated  about  27  miles  from  the 
sea  and  about  250  miles  from  Paris  by  rail.  The 
population  is  about  140,000,  and  from  an  histor- 
ical point  of  view  Nantes  is  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting of  French  cities.  Its  name  is  derived  from 
its  having  been  the  chief  city  of  the  Nannetes,  an 
ancient  Gallic  tribe,  and  under  the  Romans  the  city 
became  one  of  the  principal  centres  of  Western 
Gaul,  having  retained  its  prominence  up  to  the 
present  day.  It  has  seen  many  sieges  and  assaults, 
and  was  the  last  city  of  France  to  surrender  to 
Henry  IV  of  France,  who  signed  here  the  famous 
edict  that  gave  Protestants  equal  rights  with  Cath- 


i66  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

olics  for  nearly  a  hundred  years.  Many  notable 
Frenchmen  owned  Nantes  as  their  birthplace, 
among  them  Jules  Verne  and  several  famous 
French  generals.  Unto  the  present  day  the 
Bretons  of  Nantes  and  the  surrounding  district 
retain  their  distinct  peculiarities  of  character,  form- 
ing for  France  what  East  Anglia  forms  for  Eng- 
land, and  Norman  influence,  combined  with  Celtic 
origin,  is  evident  in  the  people  of  the  country. 
The  Breton,  by  the  way,  makes  a  fine  soldier,  hav- 
ing more  of  doggedness  than  the  usual  Frenchman 
to  combine  with  the  dash  and  agility  of  body  and 
mind  characteristic  of  the  Latin  races. 

Orleans,  the  head-quarters  of  the  5th  Army 
Corps,  is  the  military  centre  for  the  departments 
of  Loiret,  Lx)ire-et-Cher,  Seine-et-Marne,  Yonne, 
part  of  Seine-et-Oise  and  part  of  Seine.  It  is  situ- 
ated 75  miles  south-west  of  Paris  by  rail,  and  has  a 
population  of  about  60,000,  including  its  garrison. 
As  the  capital  of  a  separate  kingdom,  Orleans 
enjoyed  great  prominence  throughout  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  it  is  always  remembered  for  its  asso- 
ciations with  the  soldier-maid  of  France,  Jeanne 
d'Arc.  One  of  the  principal  artillery  schools  of 
the  Army  is  situated  here.  An  ancient  Celtic 
centre,  the  town  was  renamed  in  the  period  of 
Roman  occupation,  and  was  a  flourishing  city  aS 


GARRISON  TOWNS  OF  FRANCE        167 

early  as  the  fifth  century.  It  was  vainly  besieged 
by  Attila  and  the  Huns,  taken  by  Clovis,  and  held 
against  the  English  at  the  time  when  Jeanne  brought 
reinforcements  to  the  garrison  and  compelled  the 
raising  of  the  siege.  The  long  wars  between 
Huguenots  and  Catholics  brought  more  strife  to 
Orleans,  and  in  the  revolutionary  period  it  suffered 
severely,  while  it  was  occupied  by  the  Prussians 
both  in  1815  and  in  1870,  numerous  battles  being 
fought  in  its  vicinity  during  the  last-mentioned  war. 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that  a  Duke  of  Orleans,  a 
member  of  the  old  royal  family  of  France,  served 
in  the  British  Army  in  the  reign  of  Victoria. 

Rennes,  the  ancient  capital  of  Brittany,  is  the 
head-quarters  of  the  loth  Army  Corps,  and  the 
site  of  a  large  arsenal  in  addition  to  the  barracks, 
while  it  is  the  military  centre  for  the  departments 
of  C6tes-du-Nord,  Manche,  and  Ille-et-Vilaine,  In 
the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  town 
was  almost  destroyed  by  fire,  a  catastrophe  that 
is  not  even  yet  forgotten;  while  as  the  birthplace 
of  Boulanger,  who  introduced  many  reforms  into 
the  French  Army  and  was  largely  responsible  for 
its  efficiency  in  recent  years,  Rennes  is  peculiarly 
connected  with  military  matters.  It  may  be  re- 
membered, by  the  way,  that  the  second  Dreyfus 
trial  was  held  here  in  1899.     The  population  of 


i68  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

the  town  is  about  75,000,  and  it  is  51  miles  south- 
east of  St.  Malo  and  232  miles  west-south-west  of 
Paris.  Historically,  Rennes  was  the  centre  of  sev- 
eral Roman  roads  which  are  still  recognisable,  and 
in  mediaeval  times  it  suffered  greatly  from  the  wars 
between  French  and  English.  In  the  revolutionary 
period  the  Republican  Army  made  Rennes  their 
centre  for  the  operations  against  the  Vendeans,  but 
it  has  no  later  prominence  in  connection  with 
military  history. 

Rouen,  87  miles  north-west  of  Paris  by  rail,  is 
the  head-quarters  of  the  3rd  Army  Corps,  is  the 
ancient  capital  of  Normandy,  and  military  centre 
for  the  departments  of  Calvados,  Eure,  Seine- 
Inferieure,  and  parts  of  Seine-et-Oise  and  of  Seine, 
It  has  a  population  of  about  120,000,  including  the 
garrison,  and  is  a  town  of  narrow,  picturesque 
streets  and  of  old-world  dignity  and  interest.  Here 
William  the  Conqueror  died  and  Jeanne  d'Arc  was 
burned — a  statue  commemorates  the  latter  event 
in  the  town.  Although  78  miles  from  the  sea, 
Rouen  is  one  of  the  principal  French  ports,  the  bed 
of  the  Seine  having  been  deepened  from  the  sea  to 
the  city  by  an  ingenious  system  of  embankments, 
which  forced  the  river  to  deepen  its  own  bed  rather 
than  extend  its  width — and  military  labour  went 
far  toward  the  construction  of  the  embankments. 


GARRISON  TOWNS  OF  FRANCE        169 

Toulouse,  the  head-quarters  of  the  17th  Army 
Corps,  is  the  military  centre  for  the  departments 
of  Ariege,  Haute-Garonne,  Gers,  Lot,  Lot-et- 
Garonne,  and  Tarn-et-Garonne.  The  town  is  pe- 
culiarly liable  to  great  floods,  and  those  of  1855, 
which  swept  away  the  suspension  bridge  of  St. 
Pierre,  and  of  1875,  which  destroyed  7000  houses 
and  drowned  300  people,  are  still  remembered  in 
the  city.  It  is  situated  478  miles  south  of  Paris 
and  160  miles  south-east  from  Bordeaux,  and,  with 
a  population  of  about  150,000,  ranks  as  the 
metropolis  of  Southern  France. 

Tours,  the  head-quarters  of  the  9th  Army  Corps, 
is  situated  145  miles  south-west  from  Paris  by  rail, 
and  is  the  military  centre  for  the  departments  of 
Maine-et-Loire,  Indre-et-Loire,  Deux-Sevres,  and 
Vienne.  Under  the  Gauls  it  was  the  capital  of  the 
Turones,  from  whom  it  derived  the  name  which  it 
still  bears,  and  traces  of  Roman  occupation  still 
remain  in  the  form  of  the  ancient  amphitheatre. 
After  the  fall  of  Roman  power.  Tours  was  fortified 
against  barbarian  invasion,  and  subsequently  it 
was  closely  connected  with  the  great  names  of 
French  history,  notably  those  of  Clovis,  who  pre- 
sented rich  gifts  to  the  church  at  Tours  out  of  the 
spoils  won  from  Alaric  and  the  Goths,  and  with 
Charlemagne,     who     disciplined     its    monasteries. 


I70  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

Few  towns  •  surpass  Tours  in  historic  interest,  and 
it  is  noteworthy  in  modern  times,  as  the  birthplace 
of  Balzac  and  the  two  Marshals  Boucicaut.  In 
1870  the  government  of  the  national  defence  was 
established  at  Tours,  and  the  Third  Republic  may 
thus  be  said  to  have  had  its  birth  here. 

No  list  of  the  great  garrisons  of  France  would  be 
complete  without  a  reference  to  Verdun  and  Toul, 
the  ends  of  the  great  chain  of  fortresses  which 
defend  the  eastern  frontier.  Toul,  14  miles  to  the 
west  of  Nancy,  is  the  centre  of  a  vast  network  of 
entrenchments  and  defences,  and  the  hills  surround- 
ing the  town  are  crowned  with  forts  which  com- 
mand all  the  country  within  range  to  the  east,  A 
series  of  forts,  echeloning  along  the  ridge  of  the 
Meuse,  connect  Toul  with  Verdun,  and  forms  a 
defensive  line  which  is  only  equalled  in  strength  by 
the  defences  of  Paris,  as  far  as  the  French  military 
defensive  system  is  concerned.  Verdun,  at  the 
northern  end  of  the  line  of  frontier  defences,  is 
surrounded  by  a  ring  of  detached  forts,  eleven  in 
number,  and  occupying  a  circumference  of  25  miles. 
Since  the  loss  of  Metz  to  Germany,  Verdun  has 
been  so  strengthened  as  to  form  the  most  formida- 
ble fortress  in  France. 


CHAPTER    XIV 
SOME   EFFECTS.    ACTIVE    SERVICE 

ONE  of  the  principal  effects  of  a  conscript 
system  such  as  that  of  France  is  that  the 
great  majority  of  the  population  of  the  country  is 
characterised  by  fixed  habits  and  ideas  with  regard 
to  the  way  in  which  work  should  be  done.  The 
Latin  races  are  all  marked  by  a  certain  flexibility 
and  dexterity  of  mind,  a  quickness  of  apprehension 
which  is  absent,  for  the  most  part,  from  other 
Caucasian  stock,  and  military  training  increases  this 
and  applies  it  to  physical  use  as  well  as  to  mental 
qualities.  The  conscript,  back  in  civilian  life  at 
the  end  of  his  training,  is  to  be  compared  to  the 
sailor  of  the  British  Navy  in  many  respects;  he 
has  learned  a  certain  handiness,  a  dexterity  in  con- 
nection with  his  daily  work,  and  it  is  a  lesson  that 
stays  with  him,  as  a  rule,  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

While  military  service  alters,  it  does  not  create; 
the  stolid  Breton — stolid  by  comparison  with  the 
men  of  central  and  Southern  France,  remains  stolid 
as  before  he  went  up  for  training,  for  the  Army 

171 


172  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

has  grafted  on  him  nothing  that  is  new — it  has 
merely  added  to  his  knowledge  and  developed,  in 
the  way  of  characteristics,  what  was  already  there. 
But  the  Breton  is  the  better  for  his  two  years — 
without  them  he  would  be  a  very  stolid  and  un- 
imaginative person  indeed,  and  he  has  learned  to 
stir  himself,  to  make  the  best  of  himself  and  the 
work  that  is  his  to  perform.  Similarly  the  tra- 
ditional Frenchman,  coming  from  the  wine-growing 
districts  of  the  south,  and  a  hot-headed  and  impet- 
uous individual,  has  his  eccentricities  modified,  for 
hot-headedness  does  not  pay  in  military  service,  and 
this  man  has  learned  to  control  himself  just  as 
the  Breton  has  acquired  a  little  more  rapidity  of 
movement.  Yet  the  individual  characteristics  of 
the  two  types  remain;  personal  traits  have  been 
modified  by  discipline,  but  not  destroyed,  for  while 
the  Army  of  the  Republic  creates  nothing,  it  also 
annihilates  nothing.  The  men  have  been  moulded 
to  a  pattern,  but  they  are  the  same  men  in  essence, 
with  no  quality  removed  altogether.  Usually,  they 
are  vastly  improved. 

Especially  is  this  last  true  of  the  many  youths 
who  think — it  is  a  common  failing  of  youth — that 
they  know  everything  and  are  capable  of  all  things. 
The  Army  modifies  their  self-conceit;  it  teaches 
them  that  they  are  but  as  other  men,  needing  to 


SOME  EFFECTS.    ACTIVE  SERVICE    173 

learn.  It  first  of  all  destroys  the  unhealthy  growth 
of  unjustifiable  self-confidence,  reducing  these  men 
to  utter  self-abasement ;  then,  on  this  foundation,  the 
Army  and  the  training  it  involves  gradually  build 
up,  not  a  belief  in  self-powers,  but  a  knowledge  of 
the  capacities  and  powers  of  self,  of  their  limita- 
tions as  well  as  their  extent.  The  braggart  who 
goes  to  his  military  training  comes  back  chastened 
and,  if  he  still  boasts,  it  is  of  things  that  he  is 
really  capable  of  doing,  knowledge  that  he  has  actu- 
ally obtained — he  makes  no  claims  that  he  cannot 
justify,  as  a  rule.  This  much  the  Army  of  France 
does  for  the  men  who  pass  through  it  and  back  to 
their  normal  tasks  in  life. 

The  life  of  the  conscripts  has  been  charged  with 
blunting  the  finer  sensibilities  of  those  who  have  to 
undergo  its  rigours,  but  the  charge  cannot  be  al- 
lowed. For  one  might  as  well  say  that  the  engineer 
is  rendered  incapable  of  appreciating  music,  or 
the  doctor  has  no  conception  of  the  beauty  of  a 
garden,  by  reason  of  the  mathematical  nature  of 
the  work  accomplished  by  the  one  and  the  physical 
repulsiveness  of  much  that  the  other  has  to  per- 
form. The  Army  and  the  training  that  it  involves 
never  injured  a  Frenchman  yet,  so  long  as  the  laws 
governing  the  Army  received  proper  interpretation. 
In  the  end  of  the  last  century  there  were  injustices 


174  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

prevalent  both  among  men  and  officers,  but  the 
world  and  France  gain  wisdom  with  experience ;  the 
Republican  Army  as  at  present  constituted  is  a 
growth  of  only  forty  years,  and  its  predecessor, 
the  Army  of  Napoleon  the  futile,  showed  by  the 
war  of  1870  what  an  immense  amount  of  reform 
was  necessary  before  French  arms  could  regain 
their  lustre.  In  the  history  of  an  army,  forty 
years  is  a  very  short  time,  and,  rather  than  cavil 
at  the  slowness  with  which  reforms  have  been 
accomplished,  it  is  due  to  France  that  one  should 
admire  the  way  in  which  the  Army  has  been  built 
up  from  so  sorry  a  foundation  into  the  great  and 
effective  machine  of  to-day. 

In  civilian  France,  military  ways  persist.  Habits 
of  neatness  and  method,  and  accuracy  in  trifles, 
attest  the  military  training  that  men  have  under- 
gone. The  very  step  of  a  Frenchman  walking  is 
reminiscent  of  the  days  when  he  was  taught  to 
march,  and  he  has  a  respect  for  and  knowledge  of 
firearms  which  the  average  civilian  of  English  life 
— unless  he  be  addicted  to  some  form  of  sport — 
never  acquires.  The  Frenchman  is  never  at  a  loss 
with  a  sporting  gun,  knows  better  than  to  point 
the  weapon  at  the  head  of  another  man  when 
loading,  and  in  other  ways  betrays  familiarity  with 
the  tool  of   a  craft — one  that  many  Englishmen 


SOME  EFFECTS.     ACTIVE  SERVICE    175 

regard  as  something  to  be  handled  carelessly  or 
passed  by  as  a  thing  of  mystery.  This  is  given 
only  as  an  instance  of  the  many  ways  in  which  the 
conscript  system  modifies  men,  for  there  are  many 
ways  in  which  modifications  are  effected.  Some 
students  of  the  subject  question  whether  the 
French  flexuousness  and  adaptability  are  results  of 
the  military  system  of  the  Republic  or  whether  they 
are  ingrained  in  the  race  independently  of  military 
training.  Since  practically  every  citizen  is  a  sol- 
dier, this  is  a  point  that  cannot  be  easily  determined, 
but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  characteristics  in 
question  are  increased  by  military  service. 

Every  Frenchman  who  has  passed  through  the 
Army  is  in  possession  of  a  little  book  which  he 
guards  most  jealously,  since  in  that  book  are 
inserted  full  particulars  of  his  term  of  service  with 
the  colours,  and  all  things  relating  to  his  military 
history,  as  well  as  details  of  his  duties  in  case  of 
mobilisation  of  the  Army.  The  little  book  of  the 
ex-conscript  is  to  him  what  "marriage  lines"  are 
to  a  woman — except  that  the  ex-conscript  incurs 
penalties  if  he  loses  his  book,  while  the  woman  who 
loses  her  "marriage  lines"  can  always  get  another 
copy  as  long  as  the  register  containing  particulars 
of  the  ceremony  is  in  existence. 

It   must   be   understood   that,    in   case   of   need 


176  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

arising  for  the  mobilisation  of  the  Army,  the  body 
of  men  brought  to  the  colours  is  so  great  that  some 
system  must  be  followed  in  bringing  them  on  to 
a  war  footing.  The  little  book  contains  particulars 
of  the  place  at  which  the  conscript  on  the  reserve 
is  to  report  himself,  together  with  the  day  of  mo- 
bilisation on  which  he  will  be  required  to  join  the 
colours — the  actual  mobilisation  is  spread  over  a 
period  of  days,  in  order  that  some  men — the  first 
line  troops — ^may  be  drafted  out  to  their  posts  be- 
fore the  rest  come  in.  When  the  order  for  mobilisa- 
tion has  been  given  out — by  the  ringing  of  bells, 
proclamation  by  criers,  and  in  various  other  ways — 
the  reservist  immediately  consults  his  little  book, 
and  ascertains  on  what  date  he  will  have  to  pre- 
sent himself  to  the  authorities,  and  at  what  station 
he  is  expected  to  rejoin.  His  wife  or  his  mother  or 
sister  cooks  him  food  for  the  day  of  his  going,  and, 
after  a  prayer  at  some  wayside  shrine  or  in  some 
sanctuary,  and  perhaps  an  offering  vowed  to  the 
Virgin  or  to  the  patron  saint,  the  citizen  sets  out  to 
become  a  soldier  again.  August,  191 4,  was  the 
first  time  of  complete  mobilisation  in  the  history 
of  the  Third  Republic,  and  the  system  under  which 
the  men  were  gathered  back  to  the  colours  worked 
smoothly  in  all  its  details.  There  was  no  confusion 
anywhere;  to  each  man  his  place,  to  each  unit  its 


SOME  EFFECTS.    ACTIVE  SERVICE    177 

place,  and  the  Army  Corps  went  out  to  the  Belgian 
frontier  or  to  the  edge  of  the  provinces  that  slope 
down  toward  the  Rhine,  with  ominous  celerity,  and 
with  those  interminable  regimental  songs  sounding 
as  they  sound  when  men  go  out  to  manoeuvres  at 
the  end  of  the  soldiers'  year.  The  hour  for  which 
this  Army  had  been  prepared  had  come,  and  the 
Army  was  found  ready  to  meet  the  hour. 

Although  the  effective  strength  of  the  French 
Army,  when  the  last  man  has  been  armed  and 
placed  in  the  field,  is  about  4,800,000  men,  it  must 
not  be  supposed  that  the  Republic  maintains  all 
these  numbers  as  a  fighting  force  in  the  field 
throughout  the  campaign.  About  a  million  and  a 
half  of  men  go  out  as  the  "first  line,"  and  from 
those  who  remain  this  line  is  strengthened  as  and 
where  required.  It  has  become  clear  since  the 
battle  of  the  Marne  that  almost  a  second  army  was 
collected  under  the  shelter  of  the  Paris  forts  to 
reinforce  the  retreating  line  of  men  who  fell  back 
from  the  Belgian  frontier,  and  in  this  connection  it 
may  be  noted  that  the  traditional  French  method 
of  conducting  war  is  with  sixty  per  cent  of  the  men 
in  the  firing  line,  and  the  remaining  forty  per  cent 
in  rear  as  reserves.  France's  conduct  of  the  war 
against  Germany  has  shown  that  this  method  of 
fighting — diametrically  opposed  to  the  German  con- 


178  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

ception  of  war — is  still  being  adhered  to,  and  the 
troops  in  the  firing  line  by  no  means  compose  the 
whole  of  the  French  striking  force. 

As  to  active  service  in  the  French  Army,  the 
general  English  view  is  that  the  French  soldier, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Algerian  garrison,  sees 
no  service  outside  European  bounds,  and  the  deeds 
of  French  soldiers  are  ignored  as  regards  French 
colonial  possessions  and  expeditions.  In  the  expe- 
dition to  Tonquin,  to  which  reference  has  already 
been  made  in  connection  with  the  Foreign  Legion 
of  the  French  Army,  there  were  deeds  done  by 
individuals  and  by  regiments  that  are  worthy  of 
memory  besides  the  brilliant  exploits  of  our  own 
Army.  It  is  not  only  to  the  war  in  the  Crimea 
and  the  present  campaign  that  we  must  look  for 
evidence  of  the  indomitable  courage  that  the 
French  undoubtedly  possess,  but  also  to  service  on 
the  French  colonial  battlefields,  in  Chinese  swamps 
and  African  wilds. 

The  present  campaign  has  proved  that  French 
soldiers  are  capable  of  retreating  in  good  order 
when  strategy  renders  a  retreat  necessary — a  feat 
hitherto  deemed  impossible  to  the  army  whose  sole 
strength  was  supposed  to  consist  in  its  power  of 
impetuous  attack.  The  retreat  from  the  Belgian 
frontier  has  rendered  necessary  a  reconstruction  of 


SOME  EFFECTS.     ACTIVE  SERVICE    179 

ideas  as  regards  French  psychology,  and  has  shown 
that  the  training  imposed  on  the  conscripts  of 
France  in  time  of  peace  was  the  best  that  could 
be  applied.  Just  as  in  the  field  the  best  general  is 
the  best  psychologist,  so  in  time  of  peace  the  best 
administration  is  that  which,  regardless  of  criti- 
cism of  its  methods,  prepares  its  men  most  effec- 
tively for  war,  selecting  the  form  of  training  to  be 
applied  in  a  way  that  takes  into  consideration  the 
mental  characteristics  and  temperament  of  the 
material  required  to  be  trained.  The  merits  of  the 
form  of  training  selected  can  only  be  determined 
by  the  effectiveness  of  the  trained  material  in 
action,  and,  granting  these  things,  the  conduct  of 
the  French  Army  in  the  present  campaign  is  a 
splendid  vindication  of  the  peace  training  of  that 
Army.  The  first  stages  of  the  war  have  been  all 
against  the  French  way  of  fighting-^the  way  in 
which  the  French  soldier  is  supposed  to  exhibit 
himself  at  his  best;  yet  in  retreat,  and  in  action 
approximating  in  length  and  tedium  to  the  mo- 
notony and  continued  exertion  of  siege  warfare, 
the  French  soldier  has  given  his  commanders  cause 
for  pride. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  men  who  are 
fighting  the  battles  of  France,  and  of  all  civilisation, 
on  French  soil  in  these  closing  months  of  19 14  are 


i8o  THE  FRENCH  ARMY 

not  like  the  veterans  with  whom  Napoleon  won  his 
battles.  The  wars  of  the  Napoleonic  era,  lasting 
for  years  as  they  did,  brought  into  the  field  a  host 
of  trained  men — trained  in  war  by  the  practice  of 
war,  rather  than  by  experiments  under  peace  con- 
ditions; from  the  time  of  the  Revolution  onward 
there  were  sufficient  veteran  soldiers,  seasoned  in 
real  warfare,  to  stiffen  the  ranks  of  any  army  that 
might  be  raised  to  attack — neither  to  retreat  nor 
to  defend,  but  to  attack  in  accordance  with  French 
tradition.  The  Army  of  the  Republic  to-day  is 
made  up  of  men  who  have  had  two  years'  training 
apiece  (with  the  exception  of  the  small  percentage 
of  re-engages,  who  also  have  had  no  war  service) 
under  peace  conditions,  and  who  for  the  most  part 
have  never  seen  a  shot  fired  in  anger,  as  the  phrase 
goes.  Yet  out  of  this  semi-raw  material  (semi- 
raw  as  far  as  war  experience  goes)  France  has 
raised  an  Army  which  may  without  exaggeration 
be  termed  magnificent,  an  Army  that  has  kept  the 
field  under  harder  circumstances  than  those  which 
brought  about  the  surrender  of  Sedan,  an  Army 
that  no  more  knows  when  it  is  beaten  than  does 
the  British  force  fighting  by  its  side. 


9/^ 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


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